OCD Often - tales of organizing, cleaning and decorating often!

pottery barn knockoff!

2010-11-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

I've been terribly slack at blogging lately. Bad blogger....bad blogger. :)

I did finish this project this week - remember the hutch in my foyer? It was my great - grandmothers and used to have a top as well! It wasn't my style, so I did end up painting the bottom half and using it in my foyer still.

Then I was left with the upper portion. I sure didn't want to just trash it - it's an antique AND a family piece as well! What to do?????

Voila.....instant bookshelf a'la Pottery Barn!

My husband helped me put a top on it (it's upside down from it's originial intent!) and I used dowel rods painted white. :) Easy Job - I LOVE the results! Eventually the big bus will go and I want to put one or two cute little chairs for little ones to snuggle and read!

PB Version (clocking in at $120.96 after the sale price of $95 AND the $26 shipping and tax!)

Mine ($10 thankyouveddymuch with the dowel rods and paint!)

Stay tuned for my ginormous chalkboard reveal!

PayBox

2010-11-05T13:56:00.000-05:00

Hey Hey YOU YOU!!!! :D

I found out about this earlier today - there's a website about to open and they're looking for members!!! :D They are trying to be better than Paypal! I use paypal ALL.THE.TIME. and Paybox is offering a whopping $50 FREE to anyone who opens their account right now! :)

I was leery of putting in any personal info at this point - but all I had to do was my username, email addy, a password and then subscribe via feed or email! DONE - Hopefully this will be extra moolah for MOI and the OCD house!!!!

Just click here at PayBox to happily claim your money!!!!

Who wants to get their card on???

2010-11-02T21:07:00.000-05:00

Now that it's November, I know many of us are looking forwarde to the holidays! My FAVORITE holiday is Christmas of course, after that Thanksgiving! We always like to send out cards for Thanksgiving - Fall is my favorite time of year to decorate for and I LOVE the way pictures turn out with fall leaves too!

Since I bought my digital camera and found my home in the web world, I've had to print MANY a picture. I looooove Shutterfly for printing - I mean, what better way to get your memories than just in the mail, eh?

Shutterfly is running a promotion for bloggers - and what better time too, since they have some GREAT choices this year! These are my top three contenders for our annual family cards!

My favorite - and I think I love it just because it's classy and yet unexpected - who gives out Thanksgiving cards??? :) I think if I use this one I'm so gonna do a photo shoot out in the leaves with fally clothes on - CUTE!

There's a TON of nice cards - certainly not the cards I would think of as compared to the Shutterfly of oh...5 years ago. :) Ya'll have come a long way and wow - I'm impressed. :)

Hey - if you're a blogger....Bloggers get free holiday cards from Shutterfly, find out how… http://bit.ly/sfly2010

How I menu plan…

2010-10-28T07:10:00.000-05:00

I LOOOOOVE Menu Planning! Seriously – I’m crazy about it. There’s nothing worse to me than the rush right before 5pm and knowing I have NOTHING prepared ahead for dinner. UGH.

Here’s what works FOR ME!

I have an Excel spreadsheet…with keeping in mind what I have in the freezer/pantry, I begin a meal ideas column. When I have enough meals in there, I then skip over and write out EVERY ingredient that I need to do those meals. Then, going through that list, I jump over to another column of only things I NEED. This is where I also add things to the list that I run out or low of during the month. I estimate about how much those things will cost and finally I have a column to keep up with my budget.

Then I have tabs for each week – for my actual play by play menus

And finally, I have a grocery store list that I divide up by sections of my grocery store. Organized and yet still simple enough for me to love it!

I can easily print out my list, attach it to my scrapbook papered, mod podg’ed, beribboned clipboard and zoom off to tackle the grocery store monster. Haha. Just kidding – I LOOOOVE shopping! My grocery budget is on the more lean side these days considering I have four people TWO with celiac disease and that includes diapers, wipes, cleaners, etc. – We’ll see how I do!

Wordless Wednesday 10/27

2010-10-27T15:05:00.000-05:00

A tale of three pillows….

2010-10-19T15:50:00.001-05:00

I’ve been wanting new pillows for our couch since we got it. I fell in love with Pottery Barn’s Linen Covers but at $25 for one cover I didn’t feel like I could swing it right now.

Imagine my surprise when at Wal-Mart of all places I found these babies at $12 – pillow included!

They’re not exactly like the PB ones but at way less money I am sold! My rug has little hints of orange and sage green along with the khaki and chocolate, so I wanted something that had a little color too. This room hasn’t been painted yet….that’s next month’s project for moi.

I love the chunky buttons….the linen fabric – I really like them!

I made the middle pillow out of dropcloths and stenciled on the four for our family. I am going to go back and darken it though with black paint. LOVE bacon packaging stenciling! Free!

Walmart had some really beautiful things today – I was shocked! I saw wire baskets, glazed pottery bowls – quite a few nice knockoff items.

Welcome to our Home!

2010-10-18T11:01:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our home!!!

The Entryway to me is SO important! It’s the first thing our guests see – not to mention the fact that I can see it well from the kitchen, playroom, living room – it’s really well centered in our home.

As of a week ago it had chair-rail all the way around. Chair-rail in a foyer? Hm….it just didn’t sit well with me. So we ripped it out. Don't worry - it all came off in long pieces and is waiting it's turn to serve again - I have another project in mind for that!

The hutch was my great-grandmothers, along with the mirror as well. The mirror was a bright gold, the hutch a good solid wood. It also had a top to the hutch, but I took it off and it’s living it’s life as another household object…which I hope to post about later in the week.

The BEST picture I have is HORRIBLE! I had already taken off the hutch and was playing with the idea of a lamp – and it’s rather embarrassing. Alas…it only stayed like this for oh….an hour or so. Hideous. *shudder*

We of course took out the chairrail, mudded, sanded, mudded, sanded…..and painted! We changed out the light fixture – it’s just a simple $20 flush mount light for now. I painted the mirror and the hutch heirloom white (spray paint, baby!) The wall color is Benjamin Moore Whitham Gray color matched into Olympic Paint at Lowe’s. The color is really yummy – the PERFECT gray to us! Now hubby wants to use it in all the other rooms of the house. HaHa.

The charging Station is from Pottery Barn by way of Craigslist for $15. The angel was a gift, pumpkin candle holder $1 at HL’s 90% off sale last year. The tall glass candle holder, candle, pumpkins and leaf plate are all yard sale finds. Total spent on all that – $2. I kid you not.

I wanted something super classy on these walls. What better classy things than sillhouettes! This is my nearly 2 year old – tongue out and all. I created the sillhouettes by taking a profile shot of them and then playing around on picnik.com with the pictures. Super simple – printed on my printer and stuck in a couple of spray painted frames. CHEAP art, people!

Another blurry shot of the hutch. Spray painted the hardware oil rubbed bronze too. FUN!

So there it is – a gray wall, white cabinet and some accessories and I’m in total LOVE! Glad you could stop by.

2010-10-16T14:18:00.000-05:00

Next week will actually hold SEVERAL Reveals!! :D I've been working like a crazy person getting all those little projects done around here! Hint Hint....giant chalkboard wall, gray painted foyer, white painted furniture, changing light fixtures, refinishing the coffee table, doing a gallery wall, sillhouette photos of my children......YAY! Be sure to stick around - I LOVE my followers!!!!! :D

I've been spray painting too......a LOT.

Yard Sale Finds......

2010-10-16T14:12:00.000-05:00

We had SO much fun this morning yard saling! :D The awesome thing was we never left our neighborhood! Today was the annual neighborhood wide sale. We didn't have one this year, but the boys and I went out around 8am and returned about 9:30.

8 total white pillar candles - $2!!!!! These have been on my wish list for-EVAH but I didn't want to pay even $1 each!! I'm cheap. ;)

Labels have also been on my list ever since I accidently breaded our fish filets a couple of weeks ago with a grit's style cereal instead of our fish breading! YUCK! These are UNOPENED and I paid $1/each.

These made my heart skip a beat!! They are QUITE tall and soooo delicate! $1 each (I bought four total!)

A large oval baking pyrex dish for $1 and an unopened package of socks for $1

Soundtrack CD $.50

Vera Bradley Checkbook cover $.50

8 novels for $2

2 polo's for DS1 - one is nautica! $.50 each

I got this CUTE little red metal box for the playroom. $.25 :)

My big total for the day was a whopping $14.25! Which of COURSE is still LESS than the original cost of just the checkbook cover!!! This is why I yard-sale. Not to collect junk but OH to save money on the things I do actually NEED! :D :D :D :D

This week's projects....

2010-10-12T19:45:00.000-05:00

Just where HAVE I been? :)

Of course, I'm tackling a MAJOR project here this week! See? We tore off all the chair rail tonight. WHY would you put chair rail in the foyer? Hmm....

I have exactly 48 hours to come up with a paint color and I'm COMPLETELY lost! This is the playroom and then the foyer. I thought about a light gray with white wainscotting under it.....then I changed to green since I already HAVE the green. However.....gray just keeps calling me back! It's either that or plain ole khaki...and I'm so undecided! Anyone care to help? :)

The only thing I know I have for the walls are these cards - they're SO beautiful! With all the color I figured I should go with a neutral. Argh - such decisions!!!

Another Busy Week!!

2010-10-08T20:55:00.000-05:00

I've spent so much time this week CLEANING. UGH. Seriously - Not a spare minute this week to be found. I ALMOST got it all done - yesterday was spent in the ER after my hubby passed out on the job - they sent him via ambulance to our ER and I quickly flew down there. He's ok - but my day was shot.

At any rate....I'm working away on little projects to show you! Just heads up though - two little boys and khaki carpet equal YUCKY stuff. Seriously - look at this:

Before our carpet cleaner:

and of course, after!

Not to mention THIS: YUCK!

and finally, my next step to makin' over the foyer:

My baby's bedroom....

2010-10-05T08:54:00.000-05:00

I'm finally feel that his room is oh......80% done, lol!!! Isn't that the way it is - you just never feel "done?"

I still want to replace the hardware on the dresser, change the fan....etc. etc.

However...it's as done as this mama on a spending freeze can do right now. ;)

When we bought our house, everything was a blank canvas. REALLY blank.

Then I tried on nearly NO money and 24 hours to revamp it before his 1st birthday party. I had the crib, rug and the blue curtains...but nothing else. I seriously dropped the ball on his room before his birth. Oh yeah..I was on bedrest.

So recently I finally had a little extra paint...from the outside of our house. So I painted....and hung things up...and I TRIED to make it a better room. I'm not a great decorator...I have ideas and I love to copy people, lol! The lighting in this room from the doorway is TERRIBLE. Seriously terrible.

I know the tissue paper pom poms are probably girly, but when I saw them, I envisioned them in this corner. DH looked at me kinda funny like...what??? but I love them.

My wonderful dad built this out of old barn wood for me. I hung it lower than the original photo and woodburned my son's name into the little wood. I wanted it to look like an ooooold ranch entrance.

Still looking for vintagey cowboy photos here. Maybe an old rifle ad? I don't know...but these work for now.

Old metal holds the important stuff...you know, diapers, diaper creme, etc. :)

The wipes case needs a little help - the paper is crooked. whoops.

The dresser was my mothers as a little girl. Lamp base from a yard sale, reward poster as is was from the thrift store.

Canvas was thrifted, shelf from a yard sale, all other stuff picked up from here and there - mostly clearance and yard sale.

I made the bandana banner out of bandanas and ribbon, the cowboy sign is from hobby lobby.

There it is! It's certainly not perfect - I loooove the stripes and it's really a lot better in my opinion than it used to be. The walls were painted the outside paint from our house and the stripes are the same paint with white mixed in until I liked it. I was all about cheap, haha!

Linking to The Thrifty Decor Chick's before/after party and a host of others!

FALL CLEANING

2010-10-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

SURPRISE!!!! ;) This week is my BIG Fall Cleaning Week!!! Posting may be a teensy bit sporadic - I simply am so busy I don't have time online! My goals for this week: Monday: Both of the boys bedrooms, their bath and the teeny hallwayTuesday: Playroom, entry foyer, living roomWednesday: Kitchen & Laundry RoomThursday: Master Bedroom, Bathroom & Closets YES I'm CRAZY! We have company coming Thursday afternoon. I want it all done before then. My Cleaning List looks like this: Wash all walls down with wet soapy rag (Shaklee Basic H or Murphy's Oil Soap...eek!)Clean Ceiling fan - with a rag, taking off the globes and washing them, replacing, washing blades, etc. Scrub BaseboardsStraighten drawersstraighten closet - empty closet floor and vacuum well, replaceScrub outside of all furnitureClean out under the bed/furnituremove furniture out, vacuum behind/underVacuum floors, using small attachment around edgesUse Carpet Cleaner on all the carpet That's the bedrooms/living spaces plan. :) I MET MY GOALS TODAY! PLUS I also went through everything in the playroom - I haven't cleaned anything yet but I gleaned a trashbag full of torn books, stuffed animals we don't play with and broken parts. Wish me luck......I still have a LOT to go!

The Guest Bath/Boys bathroom

2010-10-01T20:16:00.004-05:00

HOW do you get GOOD pictures of a bathroom? I wanna know, because these pictures are seriously horrid. *sigh*.

I can't WAIT though to shout it's DONE!!!!

Here's the best "before" I could find. (and now the pic isn't working - whoops! I'll work on that tomorrow hopefully!) Imagine - Builder faucet, ivory walls, hollywood lights, lino floors, brass EVERYWHERE. Ugh.

I painted with leftover laundry room paint - and it was glaring BLUE. Like Shocking Blue. I knew this wasn't what I wanted...so when I had the chance, I definitely painted!

Again...the WAY before:

And AFTER: :)

We painted, changed the faucet, doorknobs, light fixtures, framed the mirror, stained the cabinets, tiled the floors, did two custom knobs instead of a towel rack, etc. etc. :)

Originally I had a shower curtain from Target with the little cars/trucks on it. I still like that one...but I found this Nautica one at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago for $5 and hung it up for a while just for kicks. The pictures behind the toilet went with the curtain.

I took pictures of the curtain, uploaded them to photobucket, turned them into hand drawings and framed them. :) Easy and free.

See what I mean about the HORRID photos? Eek.

The light fixture was two of these bar things and one round hallway light as well for $8 on clearance at Lowe's. Faucet was Home Depot $25. I framed the mirror with simple chair rail molding.

The knobs are from Hobby Lobby - each one of our boys has a knob. :)

The stop sign is a dry erase board from Walmart.

I'm glad it's done for now - obviously I would much rather have a dreamy girly bathroom, but being as my boys will have to deal with this bathroom.....cars won. ;)

Hope ya like it!

First tile job!

2010-09-29T10:32:00.002-05:00

I finished my very first tiling job! I never dreamed I could do this - WHAT a confidence high!!

We weren't planning on replacing the bathroom floor but we found Monday that mold had grown inbetween the layers of vinyl that had been laid prior to us moving here. So we ripped it up, I went and bought tiling supplies yesterday morning, laid the tile last night and grouted it today!

It was actually *gulp* EASY!!! ;) Hopefully by the weekend/next week I can finally reveal this bathroom! In the last month I've stained the cabinet darker (not quite finished), changed the decor around, new curtain, framed the mirror and painted the ceiling, walls, etc. I also re-organized the closet. More later!!! Gotta clean up my mess now.

2010-09-28T18:30:00.002-05:00

I finally finished my mantle! I'm pleased with it - hopefully you all will like it as well.

I first had a few of my angels on the mantle - to remind me of what I need to be thankful for. My husband and children. These have special meaning to me - one was given to me when I was pregnant with my firstborn, the one with two children was given to me when I was pregnant with my twins that I later miscarried. Then I took off the angels because I felt it was a little cluttered. Hmm.....

So...thoughts from you? Anyone like it? :) Welcome FALL!!!

Twice Owned/Thrifty Treasures 9/27

2010-09-27T10:21:00.003-05:00

Well hello again!!

This weekend we had our yard sale! I didn't do too shabby - I personally made $130, my grandma made roughly the same. Here's the sad part - we planned to only have it on Saturday. I went ahead and pulled it all out on Friday too! Good thing - it RAINED Saturday! ACK!

So Saturday morning after loading it all back up on my grandpas truck, I went to a couple of neighborhood sales. That's hard core - when you're yard-saling in the rain! Most everyone had it in their garage, so it wasn't toooo bad. ;)

I found a couple of GREAT things this week - a black wool peacoat for $2 (mine!), khaki pants for DH ($2), pajamas for my boys ($1 each), a light kit for our living room fan (SCORE! $2) and lastly all these wonderful items!!!! ($15 for all!)

This little ivory stand was one of my favorites! It's marked as a two's company piece - anyone know anything about them? I got it for $3.

I am working on my mantle - redo'ing last years decorations. I still lack a few things, but here's one way I used those leaf plates - which by the way all four still had tags on them for $16 each!

Lastly - the CUTE little cake stand found a home as well. :) Also in the picture are my craigslist table ($10) and the huge frame turned chalkboard menu for $10 as well. I sprayed chalkboard paint right onto the picture frame glass and it's been great! I did distort our last name, for what it's worth.

Also as a sneak peek - I also got a HUUUUGE mirror for FREE from my grandmother! The gold just wasn't doing it for me so voila......enter spray paint! This was my great grandmothers fifty five years ago! ACK - spraypainting an antique! YIKES!

I also got a few more things out of my grandmother's pile.....but that's another post for another day. ;) You just can't beat FREE!

Fall Cleaning....post one

2010-09-24T15:25:00.002-05:00

Here we are in the FALL season already! WOW!

As part of my fall cleaning (along with those at House of Grace), I was determined to finally whip this kitchen of mine into GREAT shape. Ya'll have seen my countertops, my craft cabinet, my pantry - now it's time to show you my cabinets!

It appears that I have TONS of cabinet space in my wonderful kitchen, but the truth is they're not very deep and quite short. Thankfully, I love living simply and keeping things as bare-bones as I can without sacrificing function, since I cook 95% of all our meals at home.

So I began decluttering in preperation for our yard sale (which is going on today AND tomorrow) and then finally splurged on some beautiful shelf liner paper!

The lady before me had laid quite ugly wallpaper which also covered the walls under the cabinets. There apparently was a leak some years ago - here's the before YUCKY photo:

And my after shot: I'm phasing out all cleaners but my favorites - SHAKLEE!! :D I use them for everything BUT my floors so far - I'm still attached to my mopnglo. At any rate - all I added in was a shelf thingy from my stash and the liner paper.

I also did my pots n pans cabinet - in my dreams I dream of a great pull out cabinet, but I have to work with what I have right now. ;)

Here's the before - it never stays like this for long, as I usually restack once a week or so - thankfully for the before shot this time it was a wreck. ;)

And of course - after!!!

I've since finished ALL my cabinets - everything is so fresh and neat looking with that gorgeous paper! It makes me smile EVERY time I open a cabinet - and really, isn't that what it's all about? ;)

Fall Mantle

2010-09-22T15:26:00.001-05:00

I know.....waaaay too many posts in one day - but tomorrow I won't be around much as we're getting ready for our annual YARD SALE this weekend!!! :D

Here's last years mantle....that i will no doubt work on re-creating this year. I loved it so much. I may redo the FALL garland - I think one made with burlap and rope would be more fitting and more loved right now. ;)

Fall Wreath Take 1

2010-09-22T13:44:00.002-05:00

I'm getting into the fall spirit! Today's goal was to create a wreath using things I already had. I didn't want to spend ANYTHING on this one. :)

I've wanted a rectangle or square wreath for a loooong time. The other night I was sitting here and it hit me.....duh - make your own - with clothes hangers!

So this morning........

I gathered my supplies. 2 wire coathangers (we use plastic ones only in our closets, these are for consignment sales and yard sales), a long leafy garland (purchased a few years back at Hobby Lobbys 80% off after fall sale), and a primitive looking pip berry garland. Oh - and not pictured, a pair of scissors and some green floral wire.

I started off by untwisting the hangers into long semi straight pieces. Then I created a rectangular shape. It's not perfect - but with the leaves on it it didn't need to be.

Then I just formed the berries and then the leaves around the shape, twisting together all three layers with the floral wire. EASY. I tied a pumpkin themed piece of ribbon in a bow, then hung it along with our last initial on our front door.

Well....hello there FREE Fall Rectangle Wreath!!!

Just a note: The door color is gumball red and the welcome I handpainted on using a printout from my computer and pencil lead to create my "stencil" then filled in the lines with an artist brush and white craft paint.

A few answers.....

2010-09-22T10:07:00.002-05:00

I'm so glad you like my countertops!!! So far I've had almost nothing but POSITIVE comments!

To answer some questions though - YES I did seal them - so far with 8 coats of a water based poly. I'm planning on doing a few more coats. I chose to do the poly instead of Envirotech right now - later if I get my bravery up I may do the Enviro, but I didn't have the extra cash right now either.

Yes, I know that I can't put food directly on the counters now - but the truth is I never did before, either. I use plates or cutting boards. DH often liked to use the counters and it totally GROSSED Me out. Now - he can't. HeeHeeHee.....

Also - they seem to be quite durable now. They're not completely heat resistant, so if I'm putting a hot pan on the counters (which wouldn't have been a good idea on my old counters either!) I use a hot pad or trivet. Again - they're not safe for chopping food on, but that's why I have two nifty wooden cutting boards.

The bottom line is while there are *some* drawbacks to painted and poly'd counters, I'm perfectly HAPPY with them and was 100% willing to deal with the cons to have the pros.

Hopefully that make sense. I did take in progress pictures, so hopefully that can be a future post, if anyone wants to see how I choose to tackle this project! Oh - and also, it took roughly 12 hours (one day) interrupted by 2 small toddlers, a church service & cooking dinner (while the stove was in the middle of the floor!).

Twice Owned/Thrift Finds 9/21

2010-09-21T11:21:00.003-05:00

This week had quite a few thrifty/twice owned finds!!! Starting with this set of home decor!

My grandparents have some friends that about once a year call and tell them to come pick up whatever they are getting rid of - my grandparents are garage sale junkies so this is right up their alley! We all get to pick from this stuff if we want, then the rest goes to a yard sale or on Craigslist.

From this FREE shopping trip, I got: plant stand (currently holding a pumpkin on the front porch!) wicker/iron wall hanging basket (Southern Living i believe), the bundt pan and the lit snowman (still has the tags on him!). I also threw in the new lamps I picked up yesterday at TJMaxx - on clearance for $13 each. They have some fabric and spray paint in their future.

The boys also needed some fall clothes - so I stopped by a few consignment stores/sales. This shows what I got for my youngest man.

and again - clothes - this time for my oldest son (4 years old)! LOTS of kelly's kids and gap in this one!

I also stopped at a thrift store and found a huge bag full of vintage clothespins! $.99 for the bag.

That same thrift store had this Vera Bradley purse - REAL VB, not fake - for $1.99 :) I have another VB from that same thrift store - same price point. Makes me happppy!!! the pants hanger will be living it's new life as a ribbon organizer - for $.50.

I told you there was a LOT today!!!!

There's those clothespins again, along with three tops for me!

LOTS of fun things found this week, in a normal week I'd never get that much stuff, but I had fun and only spent a fraction of what I'd have spent new. ;) Strasburg and KK are expensive stuff, wow!!!

Painted Kitchen

2010-09-20T15:42:00.004-05:00

Meet our kitchen February 14th, 2008. We had just purchased our second home and the kitchen was at least three times what I had been working with. I was in LOVE!

Immediately I knew that down the road I'd want to replace the door hardware, stove, dishwasher, countertops and put up a backsplash, paint the walls and the cabinets.

Then I talked it over with my husband!!! He vetoed the painted cabinet idea, sadly. So I started out slowly changing the things that I did want to change. I put up board and batten work in the adjoining breakfast area, changed the door hardware, bought a new dishwasher, new stove (well, that was immediate - I wasn't cooking a THANG in that dirty monster! Earlier this year we added a beadboard backsplash. The last thing on my list was to update the countertops.

I have ALWAYS wanted granite. However, it would cost us roughly $2,000 to $4000 for it, and we'd be one of the few in the neighborhood with granite. Our house is already towards the high end price wise of our neighborhood, so we didn't want to spend the money there, also - um...that's TWO THOUSAND dollars. Yikes.

Again...in came this great resource called the internet. Much to my husbands dismay and utter glee later on.....

I painted my countertops. $40 later I'm left with....

I used five colors of paint - leftover khaki from the outside of the house, black craft paint, brown craft paint and two small sample tubs of gold and gray from the paint dept. at Lowe's.

The secret weapon in my arsenal? i used plastic shopping bags and cardboard pieces. Uh...yeah. Seriously - I painted on a primer coat with a foam roller, then went to town with plastic bags and paint. :)

I still want to work on those cabinets....but that's another project for oh...another year.

Linking this post up to these parties:

Between naps on the porch , House of Grace, Just Something I whipped Up, DIY Show Off, We are THAT Family (wfmw), Trendy Treehouse Blog Hop, and a whole lot more as the week goes by!

vacation...

2010-09-18T06:37:00.003-05:00

I'm on vacation until Monday....but I'll come back with a TON Of posts!

a) I painted my laminate kitchen countertops before I left!!!
b) My guest bathroom is DONE!
c) I'll finally reveal my kiddos rooms!

Come back then - I forgot my camera card reader!

oh...and exciting news...

WELCOME to those coming over from Domestically Speaking!!

Welcome to my NEW Home!!!!

2010-09-14T20:41:00.002-05:00

Hi again....and wasn't that FAST??? :)

I came across a GREAT blog yesterday - Designer Blogs. I bought a premade design (cause I have ZERO patience with waiting on fun things like this right now!) THIS MORNING. Yeah.....14 hours ago.

Bada Bing Bada Boom - Lauren over at DB has my NEW Look installed FOR ME already!!!!

Ah-mazing. Seriously - 14 hour turn around time???

Seriously - GREAT job from those gals over at Designer Blogs - just tell them that Amy @ OCD Often sent you!

THANKS LAUREN!!!!!

2010-09-14T19:07:00.001-05:00

Just a heads up......

Not Just Beans and Rice is changing....to OCD Often. Organizing, Cleaning & Decorating Often.

I'm getting a whole new look too - so just wanted to offer a little heads up if you try to access my blog!

The link will remain the NJBR link until a later date....but I'm still SO excited! I'm working with an AWESOME designer and can't WAIT to tell you about her!!!

Organizing the Pantry....

2010-09-13T09:19:00.006-05:00

We are a gluten free family - well, my husband and kids aren't, but since I am and I do the cooking, lots of our foods are Gluten free. I keep a few things around that arent - like crackers, tortillas, some cereals, etc. Anyway...the pantry was getting a little out of control - I painted it last month - a nice bright leftover green color, just for a punch of color. But those wire shelves are the PITS. For now though, I have to work with what I have.

I had seen some GREAT pantry makeovers - like at House of Smiths, Maillardville Manor, etc - using these COOL Ikea food storage containers. One problem - I live 3 hours away from the nearest Ikea, and dragging 2 kids 6 hours in the car to get PLASTIC just didn't sit well with moi. ;) I checked into Tupperware Modular Mates, but they were more pricey than I could afford right now, honestly. So...I went online - found a friend who could go to Ikea for me. However....she has a little one, and I needed a LOT of stuff. ;)

Last Friday my brother went out ot town to a wedding. I called my mother and asked if she'd heard from him (he's 17) and she said yes..that they were currently browsing this store called "Ikea?"

Um....yes, I hung up FAST and dialed his cell even FASTER. Two days later (plus some really comical and numerous phone calls - imagine two single guys wondering around ikea begging for help for the crazy sister who wants them to lug PLASTIC back three states away!!!)

Yesterday the heavens opened...angelic singing began.....I'm an IKEA Lover!!!

I decided the first order of business would be to line up all my little servants in a straight line. See - they're GORGEOUS!! ;)

30 minutes and two trash bags full of empty boxes later......

Of course there are some things I'd like to change - my labeler ran out of tape and I haven't been to staples lately, so I still need to label it all, and that bottom shelf needs a little more organization that matches, but I had to use what I had, ya know?

Anyway...I'm a MUCH happier mama now....this makes me HAPPY like nothing else!!

YAY! There are a few things left that I could've used some more containers for, but it'll have to wait until I can FINALLY go to Ikea or till someone else gets suckered into buying them for me, lol!!!! :D

linking up to:

JAGirl Show and Share

Laundry Room 3.0

2010-09-13T07:27:00.002-05:00

Welcome to my Laundry Room!!! :D

When we first bought our house the laundry was in the garage. There was this little hallway....office thing in between the garage and the hall to the kitchen/master bedroom, so when we bought our new washer and dryer ($500 for the SET from Sears - black friday 2008!) we moved the laundry room inside.

I totally am TERRIBLE at picking paint colors and what was supposed to be a pale blue ended up being a shocking bright blue. BUT I lived with it - for nearly two years!

I was in my more "country" phase then, so this is what I ended up with:

Then I met this thing called the world of decorating blogs and oh my oh me! SUCH things I'd never seen. STRIPES? on a wall???? Hmmm......

I really didn't know where I wanted to go with the laundry room, but it desperately needed painting - we went with flat paint on that blue paint - and it was in TERRIBLE shape. Ugh. GROSS. So....one day I bought the paint. Then....DH hated the idea of stripes. So I waited.

I painted my youngest son's room first (with stripes) and DH liked it, so I eventually convinced him striping the laundry wouldn't be too bad. So..I waited one night till everyone had gone to bed, got BACK up at 10:30 and painted two coats of the base color. Then the next morning, I painted the third coat, let it dry till the early afternoon and striped it!

and I LOOOOOOOVE it!! Seriously!

See? I wanted a lacy vintage tea towel or pillowcase for the curtain - and I wanted two of them down each side, but it kept getting in the way of the lock and the hinges, so back to the ole boring valance i went. I bought a twin flat sheet ($4) and a roll of lace ($3) at Walmart and made the valance with a LOT of things left over. The only things I bought for this entire makeover was the paint ($50), tape ($3) Laundry sign ($10 Hobby Lobby), Sliding organizer ($20 container store). So I guess you can say that this makeover was $83 roughly. By Christmas DH Is going to build me a set of risers to go under the washer/dryer combo with the baskets underneath - I'll have to get that link up (Modern Vintage Interiors just did it!)

I also was met with the dilemma of one huge gray breaker box on the one wall. I wanted to paint it to match the stripes, but DH thought it would not look "right" so I finally was able to just spray paint it white to match the baseboards. It works. I wanted to spray it with chalkboard paint and build a frame for it but white works for me right now. ;)

So what do you think? :)

Need to run....I have LAUNDRY to do!!!!

2010-09-09T21:33:00.002-05:00

We've been quite the busy bees this summer! Along with re-doing the inside of many rooms, we also had a large task - painting the entire outside of our home! Yikes. You can see above it was an odd color. It looks sorta gray here, but rest assured - it was a light purple. The door was a dark purple. Hmm....

We got quotes on getting it painted - and JUST the siding, not the trim too was $2000. OUCH. We bought the $500 worth of paint and brushes (five 5 gallon buckets of paint, 2 4'' brushes, 1 2.5'' angled brush) and then set to work. It took 5 weeks worth of painting - I would paint usually around 2 mornings a week for a few hours, he would paint 5 nights a week for 4-5 hours a night. TWO coats, by brush - all the way around. Quite tedious work, but for savings of thousands of dollars, not to mention the way it looks now????

Well...you tell me if it looks better. We painted the siding (oh, and we replaced a TON of it and went through a whole case of caulk - yikes!) Desert Trail (olympic, i think?) and the trim is plain white outta the can. The door is gumball red, and I painted the welcome with plain ole craft paint and a brush. :) The ferns were gleaned off the side of the road for FRREEEE! Our porch is extremely small, so it has to be what it is for now. I think I may put a monogram on the welcome mat as well. The next big project for me outside is I want to dig out all those ugly landscaping bricks and redo the flower beds....ah - next spring. HAHA!

Coming up soon - I spent the last week NOT blogging, but I am THIS close to finishing my sons room (gotta hang up the curtains!), the laundry room (which I STRIPED!) and the boys bathroom. Stay tuned!

Oh....and I LOVE comments! :D Please feel free to post away!

Camera strap slipcover

2010-09-03T21:13:00.003-05:00

Quick Friday night project.....and my sewing machine DIED on me!! :( DH is faithfully working on it as we speak. :) I did the ruffle by hand. I'll go back and redo this one since it was really just a fast project to see if I could do it. :) Of course I had to take a picture of it with my very low quality point and shoot camera.

I wish I could be a perfect sewer...but it just doesn't happen here!!!

The fabric is Alexander Henry, apples of course for FALL!!!! :D The red is just cause I felt like it.

The actual strap was one I made from scratch (this camera I bought slightly used and without a strap! I made one with fabric, interfacing and two dog leashes. ;) This is my little slipcover!

2010-09-03T15:38:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow we're taking our 4 year old to see Curious George LIVE!!! :D I'm not really big on standard character clothing, so we owned NOTHING in CG wear. I searched HobLob, Michaels & our local specialty fabric shop and they had not a stitch of CG fabric! :( How sad. I felt defeated - I personally don't care for the look of simple iron-on pieces, but it seemed I was going to have to resort to that instead. Then.....there at Hobby Lobby, inspiration struck!!!

And viola....

I found a pack of printable fabric sheets. $5.99 and I used a 40% coupon too! :) I went into Publisher and created a word art "R" (for his first name) and then filled it with an image I found online and saved to my computer. Printed it.....ironed the fabric piece onto some Heat N'Bond....then sewed around the edges to create an applique. This is my FIRST appliqued shirt...but it WILL NOT be my last! I see a whole slew of shirts in my future!!

In other news...the boys bathroom is THIS CLOSE to being finished!! I threw away the towel rack (brassy, baby!) and have something different in mind!

Family Rules....finally!

2010-09-01T10:41:00.003-05:00

Remember this table I refinished?? :) The canvas above was a TJ Maxx find at $7.99. It was faded in spots....but I saw the potential behind it. ;)

It only hung there for oh.....FOREVER before I finally did what I had wanted to all along:

(and yes, I realize NOW that the little area on the bottom needs to be trimmed - ACK. whoops.)

Anyone have any clue how to get it un-bubbled?? (yup, that's a word, lol!)

The original tutorial involved cutting strips of scrapbooking paper

and freehanding the "rules" onto the paper. Uh.....nu-uh. not happening, lol!

First of all, I didn't have the paper I liked, second - my freehanding is terrible! So...I created the canvas with my computer and some free digital scrapbooking papers. Then, I was going to get them printed via a scrapbooking printer - 4 12x12 borderless sheets would've done it great for oh...around $10. However I didn't want to wait, nor did I really want to pay out real money.

So I printed it off on 9 sheets of paper with my regular ole printer...trimmed it all up and created my own little pretty puzzle. ;) It was a little difficult getting it mod podged onto the canvas and lining it up right....and it's not perfect. However, it is what I REALLY wanted and I LOOOOOVE it!!!

Linking up to The Pleated Poppy's Link-Up!

Busy Busy.....

2010-08-31T15:41:00.003-05:00

Just dropping a few sneaky photos by....I'm running around completing projects and starting new ones so no long post today!!! See you tomorrow!

2010-08-30T15:15:00.003-05:00

Hmm......fried Chicken! What Southern gal doesn't love a big ole plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and some sweet tea?! When I found out I have Celiac Disease, I was at first heartbroken, and then TERRIFIED! I didn't know how to cook THAT kind of food? You might as well forget good tasting things, right?

The first two months were torture. LOTS of extra work - lots of things I made for my family thinking that I couldn't possibly ever eat them again.

Then through the months, I figured something out. There's a GREAT secret to my gluten free cooking - I replace any "normal" flour with a GF version. :)

This doesn't count for baking...but for "cooking" I get by. I make my own cream of chicken/mushroom soups to use in recipes, bread things in GF flour mixed with spices.....and it's simply YUMMY! The easiest thing for me is that my kids and husband eat this way too! Now yes, I sometimes give them pastas that I can't eat - but I use those meals to get little treats of my own that DH doesn't like!!!

Here's my Fried Chicken recipe:

Raw Chicken Quarters - skin on, rinsed

Buttermilk

GF Flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)

Lawry's seasoning

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Frying Oil (I use canola)

First - drown the chicken in the buttermilk. Let it "marinate" for oh....a few hours or so. Then, mix together your flour and 1/2t. of each of the rest into a bowl. Drizzle some of the milk from the chicken into the flour and stir around - this creates a nice thick breading for the chicken. Take the chicken from the marinate and press into the flour mixture until well coated. Fry in HOT oil - turning often to keep it from getting too brown. When the chicken is done, place onto paper towels to drain. ;)

I served with fried corn (from our garden!) my mashed potatoes (yummy with butter, cream cheese & heavy whipping cream mashed with the potatoes!), sweet green peas and rolls for the guys!

See.....gluten free eating doesn't always have to be boring plain chicken and veggies!! (which are good too, by the way!!)

Yard Sale Finds 8/29/2010 - and a sneak preview!

2010-08-29T13:58:00.002-05:00

Hello again!!! Comments are coming in on our master bedroom post and I'm THRILLED! :D

Today I wanted to show you the things I found yesterday while garage sale-ing. My sister and I took the boys out for a couple of hours.

We sold the boys train table last week and that left a huge empty space in one corner of our "playroom." The playroom is on the list for a total re-decorating soon, so I began to think of what I wanted to fill that space. I had thought a reading "nook" would be GREAT and began looking for a bookshelf. I didn't want just an el-cheapo laminate shelf - I have enough of those as it is. ;)

So I've looked on Craigslist - but the second sale we stopped at had all kinds of fun things - nothing I really needed. I was staring at this shelf full of things before it registered that wait...the shelf WAS for sale! :D It was $20, I got them down to $12. It's simply PERFECT! Nearly identical to the Pottery Barn Catalina shelf - just one more shelf, so I'm not sure what brand, but it's heavy, well made and in great shape. Granted - it was fun getting it home in my Honda Civic.

The bookshelf was $12

Fisher Price Barn - $.50

Little Motorcycle FREE

Black Dress Shoes for 4yo $1

Little rubbermaid FULL of buttons (sorry, no better pic!) $1

2 kids books - FREE with purchase of bookshelf!

Thomas Roundhouse - $.50!!

I spent a whopping $15 and had a blast!

Just as a heads-up for posts I have planned for this week - I will be sharing some ideas for GLUTEN FREE foods - yes, I have Celiac and people always say "WHAT can you EAT????" well....here's just a sample:

I'm also THIS close to finishing my youngest son's room! I went sorta "out there" on a limb and I love it!!!!

Hint...Hint....

Master is finished!!

2010-08-28T13:25:00.002-05:00

I'm finally oh...99.9% done with the Master Bedroom!!! :D I even sent my after pictures to Sherry & John Petersik over at Young House Love and they responded back!!! Here's what THEY said:
"Holy bananas! We're loving your amazing bedroom makeover. It's gorgeous and we love that you took the time to send it our way. It really sounds like you got an amazing bang for your buck and the outcome is seriously fabulous! You're definitely not a novice anymore! It looks like a million bucks in there. Great job!
Made. Our. Day.
xoxo,
s (& j)"

Do you even KNOW how that made MY day??? :D

Anyway...here's our master before:

and now......

Super simple - and start to finish from bedding, curtains, decorations - everything was $230!

Budget Breakdown (2 years for this redo from start to finish due to bedrest and a newborn!):

Bedding: $78.97 (Ebay)
Lamps: $35 (shades & spraypaint!)
White plates $5
Curtains $25
PB hanging votives: $20
beadboard: $16
paint: $50
everything else: shopped the house or given to me!

Total Cost: $229.97 :)

What happened to me???

2010-08-26T14:27:00.002-05:00

Ok...I admit - I terribly stink at blogging!!! :( I disappeared for the summer. It's just been SO busy you know?

We started painting the outside of our house in June. It should FINALLY Be done hopefully this weekend. I'm working my way through the inside of the house too - painting away! :D More of that to follow, I hope.

Just to reintroduce myself to the blogging world, I thought I'd drop off two projects I worked on this week. I took some inspiration from a great blogger named Bonnie and finally coralled all the runaway crayons in the house. My youngest (22 months!) has found his inner artiste and the house has all kinds of new masterpieces. Including my 1 week old COUCH! EEK! At any rate, I reorganized my kitchen cabs and came away with one large empty one - so here's my new and improved "craft" closet.

My labeler ran out of tape halfway through my labeling - STINKER!!!! :D I'm still in looooove though!

Then project #2 - I had all our numbers we use frequently taped to the inside of the above cabinet. Handwritten friends and family lists there were terribly out of date, plus some post-its with neighbor numbers, a huge sheet from our church directory....it was one YUCKY mess.

So I had a few spare moments and quickly typed up the UPDATED friends and family lists...then scanned in our church numbers and made it into a 1/2 page size. Add that to a list of the local groceries, pharmacies, restaurants, fire/police, poison control, utilities....all the important things. I mounted each on cardstock and ran it through my laminator. I had some leftover broken cork tiles from VBS so I cut them down to size and hotglued them into the inside door of my spice cabinet. Honestly I kinda wish I would have done it to my craft door instead..but it is what it is!

I looooove my new spaces!!!

He IS Risen!!

2010-04-04T07:58:00.002-05:00

He Is Risen!!!!!!

This song means so much to me, just thought I'd share it on this wonderful Easter Morn!!!!

Neat link!

2010-04-01T07:15:00.003-05:00

One passion that is near and dear to my heart is that of womanhood. Yes, I'm a Christian, and everday I work towards becoming more like the Lord. I truly hope that this post won't alienate some of my readers....but it's who I am. This blog is about our getting out of debt and yes, my decorating adventures so I'm not using it as a platform to preach, but at any rate, IF you're interested, a new website has launched that I'm really excited about!! It's called "Ladies against Feminism" and can be found right here.

Check it out!

Grocery......April

2010-03-31T14:19:00.003-05:00

Since I was so bad at keeping up with my grocery budget for March, I feel the only way I can be held responsible is 1) leave the debit card and checkbook at home and 2) be accountable here. :)

So I started out this morning to Kroger and the farmers market. I LOOOOOOVE the farmers market - hello prices!!! Our closest is around 2 miles from here. It's a little different in that the farmers sell their goods to the market and the market then sells them - I would much rather have a REAL market where I can talk to the farmers but the closest one of those is at least 30 minutes away and I'm sad about that. Alas....here's what I have to work with.

Farmers Market

1 bag discounted squash $.99

1 bag discounted zucchini $.99

1 bag discounted grapes $.99

1 plum FREE b/c while I was paying my 17m old walked over and picked up a plum and bit into it. I tried to pay for it but they refused to let me. Oops.

Cloves $1.79

Pumpkin Pie Spice $1.10

Total: $6.30

Kroger:

chicken nuggets $4.39

tater tots $1.88

Yogurt Smoothie drinks $2.79 -$1 coupon

Millet Bread $3.59

Gluten Free tortillas $2.21

Mushrooms $1.50

Tea Bags $2.99

Veggie Booty $2.99

Chips $1.85

Grape drink mix $1.67

Lemondade Mix $1.67

Pickles $2.79

Coffee Creamer $1.99

Marshmallows (for Resurrection cookies!) $.88

Total spent for this grocery trip: $36.72

This grocery trip looks like a bunch of junk and needless items, lol!!! Honestly I'm really feeling led to be more conscious of what we're eating and to try to cut out so many junk foods and yes, artificial things from our diet. I have cut the kids down to ONE bag of chicken nuggets a month and ONE yogurt smoothie/tater tot bags/pickles per 2 weeks. Our 3yo also got to pick out ONE treat item and his choice was the Veggie Booty. I have also limited myself for that matter. Only one coffee creamer a paycheck, and we're drinking water until dinner time, with the exception of one glass of juice for the kids at breakfast. Also - I'm gluten free and I never buy the premade breads but they were on clearance, as were the tortillas. I'm also trying to lose some weight so the lemondade mix is for me. :) Anyway....it is what it is. I also walked PAST some deals!!! They had some raw cheese for $2.99 - but it was only for a tiny 1/2 pound block. Then, they had hamburger for $.67 a pound, but I still have probably oh....20 pounds in the freezer so I didn't buy it. I'll have to post more about the way I'm feeling led to change our eating habits....later. ;) Right now it's 75 degrees and we need some sunshine in our lives!

Little Details....

2010-03-31T14:07:00.004-05:00

I finally got a few things done in our master bedroom!!! I hung the plates by the dresser, finally got the monogram up, redid over the chest and finally found pillows that matched the curtains. The only thing I really would like to redo in here are the lamps - I want brown drum shades. :) Otherwise - I think I like it!! :D

Trash to Treasure!

2010-03-31T13:51:00.002-05:00

Here's the before picture.....not my style and definitely not my favorite finish.

The first thing I did was sand the top well, then spray paint the rest of it. Then I used MinWax gel Stain to stain the top. Note: Don't do this in full sun view!!!! I also didn't stir the stain, so it dried very fast and by the time I got to the other end I was in TROUBLE!!! I had to RESand everything. UGH!

The canvas above will eventually be turned into something else, lol - I just had to hang it up quickly a) my oldest LOVES his letters and b) I sure didn't want it to get broken! I did get it at TJMaxx for $7 on clearance. :)

My favorite thing!!! :D This is a gorgeous knob from Hobby Lobby - I actually am going to put another piece of wood on the front to make it look like a drawer front but I havne't had the chance yet. ;)

Menu Plan Monday!

2010-03-29T11:31:00.002-05:00

Menu Plan monday:

Monday: Haystacks (taco salad)
Tuesday: Grilled chicken, baked sweet potato & tossed salads
Wednesday: Hamburger Steaks, leftover veggies for DH & kids, green smoothie for mama
Thursday: Chicken Stirfry with fried rice
Friday: Fried Fish, purple hull peas, corn bread
Saturday: Breakfast for supper
Sunday: Crockpot chicken quarters, mashed potatoes, english peas

Hubby is working night shift this week and next. :( YUCK - I HATE NIGHTS!!!! (he did it for 5 years straight and it was horrible!)

Spring Mantle

2010-03-23T14:10:00.004-05:00

Finally got my SPRING banner done!! I always hang something along the mantel for each season. This year I just wanted a very simple feminine and yet halfway neutral and oh yeah....CHEAP option. ;) So I went and checked out what I had. A leftover MODA charm pack from a quilted runner I made a few years ago, some silver metallic paint and a set of alphabet stencils, plus an hour of my time....voila!!

I stenciled the letters onto the charm squares by dabbing on the paint and going to the next letter, then did a second coat and immediately peeled off the stencil. Then I spaced them out and sewed the squares onto a length of ribbon. It hangs well and best of all it was completely free for me! The mantle needs a little redo-ing in my opinion, I really want to paint all that brick but baby steps, baby steps ;)

I'm linking this to DIY Day as well!

Few little changes around here......

2010-03-23T14:04:00.002-05:00

I've got a lot of things floating in my brain these days....lots of little projects. BUT I know that there are a few things that I neeeeed to finish first...i.e - my bedroom. So I've hung the shadowboxes (empty though), replaced the iron piece above the cabinet in the bedroom with some hanging votives from good ole Pottery Barn and finally yes FINALLY got the monogram in from Etsy. LOVE it and it was super easy!!!

I do have a small list of other things to buy for this room - I need to hang something on the dresser wall (just waiting on the right nails from DH), replace the lamp shades with brown burlap drum shades (at Target, just waiting for payday!) and then this room will be 99% done!!!! I say that to give myself a leeetle room for changing things as I want. ;) I have just my junky khaki down alternative in these pictures, my fancy white duvet that matches the pillows is folded away for when company comes - my littles make too much of a mess of it to mess it up. ;) Sorry, I didn't think to put it on before this quick shot - but I will once I get those shades and such.

Also did a springy craft...that's coming up in another post. ;)

2010-03-17T11:11:00.002-05:00

This is the reason I love freebies and mail time!!!! :D I keep an eye out on TheThriftyMama and on MoneySavingMom for freebie alerts and sign up for those I would like to have - but I keep my mind on the fact that sometimes.....not to their fault, things just don't pan out. When they do it's a GREAT joy to see things in the mail I didn't expect!!!!

Today's haul was a free UniBall ink pen and a Zondervan Busy Moms bible!!!! Look at that pink luscious leather! This was a $25 freebie I just signed up for and boom - it's here! It's gorgeous!

Today's shopping trip had a lot of "freebie" coupons. People sometimes look at me strange - they have no idea that the world wide web has many other uses and perks than just social networking and surfing aimlessly. ;) I enjoy my free stuff!

2010-03-17T10:35:00.002-05:00

Kroger - 3/17/2010

orange juice:

seventh gen cleaner $3.99 - used free coupon from RecycleBank

seventh gen soap $3.89 - used free coupon from RecycleBank
Digiornio Pizza $7.89 x 2 - used free coupons from House Party
Chips $1.89

Donuts on markdown #1.99

Hashbrowns $1.89 x2 - used $.35 store Q and $3/$15 Q's (after pizza I had enough to use this $3 coupon)

Sausage Pattys - $6.99

Butter x 2 $.59

HotDogs $1.49x2

Organic Spices x 3 on markdown $.99 each

Eggs x 2 $1.18

Fish Fry seasoning $1.79

Fish $7.99 (this will be going back - it was the wonrg kind!)

Oreo Cakesters - $3.39 used FREE Kraft First Taste Coupon

Large Roast $6.30 ($2/lb)

Total before Coupons: $80.93

Spent after coupons: $45.36

I will be taking the fish back so my total will be $36.74

2010-03-16T18:44:00.002-05:00

I have to admit something.......

I've not been posting a lot about my shopping trips. Not because I've necessarily not been shopping, but quite frankly because the last month I've not been watching my beans and rice very well. :( We had a lot of overtime coming but there were lots of little thigns that had to be attended to around the house. DH was adamant we paint and spend a little money on the house, then repairs and other things just took precedence. I didn't really pay attention very well. ARGH!

Anyway, last week DH came to me and said the dreaded sentence...."we have had all our overtime cut!" EEK!!! :( So....last Wednesday I started watching very carefully what I was spending again. I did run to the grocery store on Saturday and spent my last $25 on meat markdowns, eggs, milk and bread. Then...tonight I used some coupons that I received in the mail for our brand new CVS that is less than 2 miles away! I had a gift card with almost $10 on it from back in 2008 when I was heavily CVS'ing. I had two options - buy junk things that I normally wouldn't splurge on, or use it to get things we actually needed.

CVS:
Toilet Paper 12pk - $8.69
Toilet Paper 4pk - $3.69
Sandwich Bags $2.99
Diet Sunkist $1.89
25 Prints from my camera $7.25

Total before coupons: $26.47
Coupons used:
$3 off any CVS item
FREE coke item $1.89
FREE 25 prints $7.25
$5/$15 purchase

The coupons clearly stated one per transaction and I went with the idea of doing seperate trannys, but she said no, she wanted me to do all at once. So..my total was $8.08 after tax and I used my GC (which I got for transferring a prescription when I was pregnant with my 17mo old!) so it ended up being FREEEEEE!!! :D LOVE that! PLUS i got stuff I needed (TP and bags) with splurges too - hence the Diet Sunkist which is one things I ALONE like in this house, lol!!! :D

FAAAREEEEE is PERFECT!

Otherwise....I have $2 left in the grocery envelope until Thursday when I refuel that envelope. Lovely, eh?

Sneak Preview....

2010-03-09T10:14:00.000-06:00

I'm working on another project.....this one a free table we picked up. It wasn't my style at all and I used the opportunity to play around with something I've wanted to do for a while!!!! ;)

Sneak Peek....should be done by Friday:

Best Ever

2010-03-09T10:06:00.000-06:00

These seriously were the BEST ever cinnamon rolls!!! Well, I can't eat them due to my gluten allergy but I was told by numerous people they were INCREDIBLE! I won first place at our church cook off with these too!! They're from the Pioneer Woman's website and cookbook. She has put her recipes for free on her website so head over and print it out - it's VERY fattening but OH so yummy!!!!

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Are you drooling yet?

Linking this to Tasty Tuesdays....

Kitchen redo on $75!!

2010-03-08T21:22:00.001-06:00

Not very much else going on right now....other than sickies, potty training and trying to stay out of the stores. :) hopefully a full update coming later this week. ;)

For now though, I pulled another project out for DIY Day with Kimba!! :D

Before, obviously:

and after:( the lighting is TERRIBLE - it's rainy and dark outside)(before curtains)

The other side before:

and after

Before:

After:

Closeup of beadboard backsplash:

Total for this insane project including the curtains was $75!! :) ROCK ON!

I want to paint the cabinets so bad but DH is dead set against. I also replaced the little curtain above the sink with a mistreatment...I'll try to get a photo tomorrow.

And voila....DIY is over!! :D

I did everything myself! :D I still have to finish the paint, change out the outlets to white from nasty bisque color, rehang curtains, redo the wall deco's, but for now - i'm in love anyway. Any thoughts?

Swaggie Baby!!

2010-03-01T16:33:00.001-06:00

If you’ve never signed up with SWAGBUCKS, please do not wait another day!!!! :D It’s a GREAT and easy way to get AMAZON money!!! I have received about $50 worth of FREE Amazon stuff in the last year – and I didn’t use swag very frequently, to be honest!! :D

Go HERE to sign up – start searching, start earning – make it a game and make it FUN!!! :D PLEASE!

org junkie part dos

2010-03-01T12:12:00.000-06:00

Well, it's me again - showing my Organizing Challenges!! :D

This wasn't a whole room makeover, only a small project. Remember this pile I showed you earlier? It was the contents of a simple two drawer filing cabinet - it was out of control, I tell you!!

I went through and re-evaluated what needed to be kept or not, condensed things down and came up with this beauty:

Who knew just a bunch of filing folders would make someone smile so wide!!!

Then I tackled the "office" space that was to hold these files:

Um...whoa. YUCK. A quick Craigslist jaunt and we ended up with a new love in our home:

Can we all say yuuuum??? :D This beauty was purchased for $1600 just a few years ago. YIKES!! It's HEAVY and I stole it on Craigslist for a paltry sum. I sold the old armoire just two days later and the remaining money to buy this was my Mother's Day present early!!! I'm in LOVE!!! :D It has the nice little filing cab drawer you saw above - again, my boundries - when it doesn't fit it has to be thrown out or gone through!!

All my software and cd's were combined into this basket - I hope to get all the cd's into a nice cd wallet when the budget allows.

All my other office lovelies have a home now too!

LUUUURVE The change!!! :D

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

I think the hardest part of this was committing to making a REAL change this time. I've gone over this space at least four times a year and it kept piling up. No matter how hard I tried, I never could come up with something that was functional, beautiful and yet something I could maintain. Oh yeah...and having to help lift that crazy 400 pound cabinet was hard. ;) Yup, overcame it - so easy to maintain!

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Got rid of so mych junk. I finally said no to keeping thinsg that just hung aruond and I kept moving from space to space. GET RID OF IT! I've got smaller drawers and organized spaces - boundries.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

It was all paper junk - so it went byebye.

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries?

Creative - it wasn't so much creative as it was just finding places that work and are GOOD places - that's why.

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?
Cause I worked my BUTT off this month!!

org junkies challenge

2010-03-01T10:32:00.001-06:00

Well, here we are! I’m typing one handed while holding a fevered child. since my last post I’ve had either one or more sickies in the house. :( Shopping has been rather sporadic. I did go over my projected amount last month, I haven’t entered all the receipts into my spreadsheet yet. Hopefully soon. :D

I’m going to take a quick break from finance and coupon blogging though to do something a little different. I love OrgJunkie’s blog and love to enter her contests as well. This past month, we had 28 days to revamp either a room or a space – with some AMAZING prizes up for grabs!! :D I’ve been a busy little bee this month, not just with decluttering and organizing, but also painting and yes, decorating!!! :D We did it on the cheap though!!

The original owners of this house wallpapered EVERYTHING. When the flip company was remodeling our house, they used contractor grade beige paint on EVERYTHING. right over the wallpaper. They had hairs caught up in the paint, missed walls, missed spots and everything. UGH. With our tax refund, we finished filling up our emergency fund and then did some much needed improvements to our home. This was DH’s decision and while yes it would’ve been fantastic to apply to our debt, I have to admit not having to look at someone else’s hair in our walls is making me breathe easier. ;)

First area….our bathroom/closets. I am supposed to have before pictures but they are GONE from my memory stick. I’m FURIOUS about that. *sigh*. Here’s what I do have though:

Before: this is just the junk from the master closet alone!!

This is the master bathroom before :)

After….

Our bathroom was again builder beige – and was really really drab. I’m not 100% done – still waiting on restaining the wood and buying new cabinet hardware, (and replacing the faucet)this is where we’ve finally rested for now.

The frame around the mirror was $6 worth of white trim from Lowe’s. I spray painted it and DH miter cut the ends and hung the mirror again. Shower Curtain, Towels and towel rack are from TJ Maxx. The lights were $8 at Lowe’s on clearance from $90 for a hallway light AND the two bar lights here. the hallway light is in the hallway between the kitchen/master bedroom – so it was a CHEAP fix!! :D

Mirror Frame: $6

Shower Curtain, Towels & Rack: $50

Lights: $8

Faucet $30

Paint: $30

total: $124

Look at all this stuff I got rid of!

That’s the master bathroom!

Moving on to the master bedroom, it was NOT functioning well for us. My youngest son’s crib was here, the GUN RACK was a constant source of irritation to me, and it just was too stuffed for words. I got rid of the chest at the end by moving it into the closet and filling it with keepsakes including my wedding dress, ruthlessly went through my book collection and phased out a bookshelf, and found a matching nightstand on Craigslist!! :D I was using a small decorators table with fabric thrown over it as my nighstand, and it was stuffed full underneath with books. I sold the books on Craigslist and now have a nightstand that works!! :D I moved the other lamp in from the living room and spraypainted them. Bedding was from Ebay - $12 plus shipping. :) Monogram above the bed is just a printout that I’m going t ouse to paint the actual monogram onto the wall at a later date. All the white will not be there. :)

We moved the crib out, rearranged teh furniture a little, put the guns in the closet and just decluttered a LOT! i’m not quite through with decorating, but I’m going very simple and minimalistic I think.

Before:

and after:

Curtains are twin sheets from Walmart at $3.00 each ($12 total) with a piece of brown silky fabric hot-glued onto the bottoms as drapes.

Way back last summer I found 4 panels of beadboard at $4 each. They’ve been hanging out in the barn since then. We pulled them out and had just enough for the back wall.

Total re-vamp including paint for the bedroom was:

Beadboard: $20 including trim/paint

Drapes: $15

Bedding: $30

Paint: $40

Nightstand: $40

Total was $145 + bathroom was $124 so complete total for the whole master "suite" was $269

So far have sold $115 worth of stuff out of this closet/bathroom on Craigslist and Ebay. :) So $154 out of pocket made this humo0gous change in our bedroom!!!

Now for OrgJunkie's questions:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge and were you able to overcome it?

My hardest part was honestly just doing it with two small kids at home who were sick most of the month. :( I spent a lot of hours working before they got up and after they laid back down. I missed a lot of sleep. Yes, I overcame it - I finished my space within the month AND with my sanity. :)

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain it's organized space?

I moved the cedar chest out along with the decorator "nightstand". Having both those things in here meant that I would chuck a ton of stuff onto those spaces and it would just pile up. Cleaning out and keeping things simple means that if something isn't put in it's place, it's in the floor and since that's a pet peeve of mine, it keeps things pretty well taken care of. ;)

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

SOLD it!! :D Well, 3 bags went to the garbage and the rest went on Ebay or Craigslist. I set myself a 2 week limit - if the things didn't sell within that first 14 days, it got donated. My sanity was worth more than the few dollers I could've made on those few things.

4. What creative solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundries?

Well, getting the real nightstand with real drawers set a boundry. Whatever books fit in there, great. Whatever doesn't - doesn't stay here. I have to rotate my stash, either by donating, selling or recycling. Having that boundry means that I won't ever look down and realize I have 300 small novels under/beside my bed. We also moved the gun rack into the closet, which meant we had to drop the middle shelf 2 feet. There was a lot of wasted space up there and having things the way they are now allows for lots of extra space.

5. Why do you think you should win the challenge?

Oh wow, do you have an hour? Honestly, I don't think I'm the "most worthy" because each of us is a winner for changing our lives!!! That's a pat pageant answer, no doubt - don't roll your eyes, ladies! But just think about it - each one of us is BUSY. Why would we be checking out Laura's blog so faithfully if we didn't realize that we cannot do it all and we want some change in our lives. No doubt there are plenty of people who read the challenge and thought "oh, I'm too busy" or "oh, I can't because I have children at home" or even "I won't be able to maintain it so why bother doing it?" The bottom line is though - I did it with fevered, throwing up not sleeping kiddos. My husband was home many days this month sick. In the midst of changing sheets, wiping puke, buying gatorade and the various other things you're supposed to do - like eating, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, blogging, reading, bathing, etc. - this was something that I realized was important to ME. ME and ME alone - my husband did kinda think the beadboard was kinda silly. Now on this end of the spectrum, I'm looking back and realizing that those early mornings spent listening to Dave Ramsey while painting, the late nights when hubby and I laughed till we cried after having to crawl over the river and through the woods and smack into our bed in the middle of the room - it was making my life beautiful - both in the real sense of the word but also creating memories. Taking the time to change something in my life is huge, and that's why I think I should at least win something - a nod, a feature, or hey, I'll take some of the AWESOME things ya'll are offering!! ;)

2010-02-25T04:57:00.001-06:00

Hi Carmen!!!!

Today I called to pay our house insurance. I couldn't get the payment to go through at all. When I got bumped over to customer service I found out that our policy was still with the mortgage company!! I got to tell a woman about how we paid off our house at only age 24 and 27! Of course we still have this drat truck payment but that's ok. We're dealing with that. I told Carmen about my blog so if she's stopping by I thought I'd say hi!!!! Only a few more days in the minh and I'll be doing a february recap AND I'll share some bedroom bathroom reorganizing photos as a part if orgjunkies roundup!!!! Stay tuned!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Publix!

2010-02-19T10:33:00.001-06:00

Publix Run

I haven’t really been grocery shopping in two weeks. I did stop and grab a gallon of milk and orange juice plus a thingie of Nyquil and eggs but otherwise….we’ve had to work on cleaning out the fridge. What a daunting task!!! :D

Still…we are having a special cook-off at church tonight and I needed a few things otherwise. This wasn’t a coupon-eventful trip for sure, but in the spirit of full disclosure, here’s what I got:

Publix

Claussen’s Pickles $2.79

Grape Jelly $1.99

Sour worms $1.89

Cake Pans $3.79

3x margarine $.79

Dannon Drinks $6/3

10x Sugar $1.99

Fleishman Yeast – $1.49

Coffee mate $3.34 for two

OJ $3.99

Stevia $1.99

Double Stuff Oreos 2.99 used free FB coupon

2 packs oreos $1.99

Excedrin $4.69 used FREE coupon

7th Generation Soap $2.99 used FREE coupon

Pacifiers $4.99

9volt batteries $4

Total Spent $51.49

Coupons saved: $13.70

Still within budget. ;) Yes I threw some splurges in there but that’s ok with me. :)

Murphy’s Moved in!

2010-02-19T08:04:00.001-06:00

Unfortunately. Murphy has become a semi-permenant member of our home these days. *sigh*.

DH came down with this crazy stuff on Tuesday. Dishwasher rebroke itself on Wednesday. DH was still in bed (off work, which messes up overtime pay) yesterday and when I went outside to get the veggies needed for supper i noticed the freezer beeping. Well…the door was ajar, so I thought something was keeping it from shutting so I readjusted some things (have you SEEN all the frozen stuff in my last few posts that I got free these days?!!!! It was FULL!) and shut it again. About 5 minutes later in the laundry room I could hear the beeping alarm again! Yup, you got it – freezer was DEAD.

That means in a WEEK my dryer, dishwasher, hvac system AND upright freezer had all died. WHAT??? My husband is one of the handiest guys you’ll ever meet and even with the flu tried to go out and fix it, to no avail. So after one of the worst sadim days I’ve ever lived through, I also got to unload and trek a trunk load full of frozen food to two different people to reload their freezers. Thankfully, this was an option for me. I would have sobbed long and loudly had I lost the food.

What’s a sadim day?? My son’s FAVORITE story is the story of King Midas. He was greedy, so he asked the wise man to let him have more gold – in the form of everything he touched would turn to gold. He quickly realized that this made him extremely lonely in his world since anything he ate and anything he’d touch would instantly turn to gold, including his precious daughter.

What’s the opposite of those days called?Sadim – backwards Midas, but it’s on these days it feels like everything you touch turns to coal. ;) So in our house – sadim days.

I had to mail a $70 item for Ebay and took it yesterday to mail. $75 in their box provided. WHAT???!! So I went on a search for a cheaper box. Ran into Office Depot, they had a box but bingo – still f$40 to ship! I need those dollars for my snowflakes, I said. I ended up being able to wrap it in brown paper and mail via USPS for $14 so all was well. Going in though, I dropped my debit card on the ground! thankfully, someone was honest enough to run after me. We got paid yesterday so that would’ve honestly been a nightmare!

We went to the Credit Union annual meeting last night – They always give out $100 bills as door prizes. I must admit, I was really hoping to win one for our snowball, but I didn’t win a thing.

This is a loooong and drawn out no picture post to say two things:

Thank God for our emergency fund.

Thank God for plenty of grace, and food. ;)

Weekend of Murphy

2010-02-13T18:28:00.001-06:00

Wow – WHIRLWIND weekend!!!

It started Wednesday – Ryan woke up with a HIGH fever. He laid around ALL DAY long, which is NOT like him at ALL. It was a tough couple of days but thankfully by Thursday night he didn’t have a fever and was acting pretty much normal.

Friday morning I needed to meet a couple of people to sell some Craigslist Items so he rode along.

I sold a huge stuffed animal for $15, a stick blender for $20, 2 garbage bags of books for $20 and also picked up $20 worth of fitness magazines from Craigslist with my blow money. I walked back into the house and noticed it felt a little chilly. Um…yeah…the hvac unit was DEAD. I called DH’s work hotline (have to call only if it’s an emergency) and he got to come home early. He fixed the unit – it was the blower motor and thankfully was only $92 to fix.

We went to my MIL’s house for dinner for my FIL’s birthday dinner, we were only there a half hour before Ryan was begging to come home as he felt bad. When we got home, we realized our dryer was broken. UGH!

Then this morning – guess what – the Dishwasher (it’s only 2m old!) broke! UNBELIEVABLE!

The dryer will be around $125 to fix, the dishwasher was a fast fix. Ryan is still pretty sick. *sigh*.

We’ve been busy today working on our bedroom – back in the summer I found some beadboard panels on clearance for $4 a sheet and we’ve had it in the barn until now. I got the wild hair to put it on our back bedroom wall as an accent wall. We’ve been dealing with that, plus as I go I’m putting more and more on Craigslist. I’m about to list some maternity clothes on ebay as well.

So far:

sold $20 books

sold $20 blender

sold $15 animal

listed $45 crib/mattress

listed $20 dishes set

listing maternity clothes….

Selling things is the fastest and quite frankly easiest way to make some quick cash, not to mention it relieves stress to de-clutter!!

*question* I know I don’t have a whole lot of followers/readers right now, but for those of you who are here – I have a question. There are so many “deal” blogs that I think I would easily get lost in the fray. I think I should focus the blog more along our journey and ways to save money, not necessarily freebies, coupon codes and deals. What do you think? With my life as it is right now, I don’t have as much time to post numerous times a day but I of course want my blog to grow! What can I do?

our Murphy Weekend

2010-02-13T18:25:00.000-06:00

You know….

2010-02-12T16:42:00.001-06:00

10 people have been shot here in my hometown. Just last week, a sixth grader was killed in a local elementary school. Now…10 people shot at our local university. INSANE. Just INSANE.

The most chilling thing to me is I was JUST THERE. Literally - JUST there two hours ago. My grandparents live on campus and I was THERE. I ate lunch there this week too - my heart is just hurting so bad, someone won't have their family tonight. :(

It’s so important to live like you were dying. LIVE people!!! Do what you love, love what you do, of course. My heart is heavy, please pray for those involved in the shooting. :( :(

Incredibly Sad.

Source for more info: WHNT news

Why we need emergency funds…..

2010-02-12T14:53:00.001-06:00

Goodness…when it rains it POURS!!!!

First my boys had the flu….then today – in the middle of really really cold weather, our heat has gone out!!! :( I called DH at work, and he’s trying to get off to come home. He has certifications in Maintenance AND in HVAC, thankfully. Thank God we have an emergency fund. It’s 65 in here and COLD!

2010-02-10T12:59:00.001-06:00

Sorry everyone, having to call in and take a couple of sick days. Boys and I have the fluish stuff going around! YUCK!

Hope everyone stays safe – what horrible weather!

Monday musings: all about balance

2010-02-08T15:27:00.001-06:00

I think I would be safe in saying that lots of women out there are hurting inside. Feeling that you aren’t as skinny, as frugal, as godly, as whatever….and the truth is. really – you aren’t. But that is OKAY. I struggle with this EVERY day, so I’m trying to help myself for that matter. The bottom line is that there will always be somone more _________ than you. Once you learn to accept that and just try to be the best YOU, life will suddenly get easier, I think.

Believe in yourself. I don’t blog this to lift myself up in any way – I am NO BETTER than anyone else. I love God, therefore yes, I am special because I’m his child, but I’m not anything special when it comes to the world. As long as I’m special to my God, my family and friends, that’s what matters. This blog is to simply log my journey and give me a place to write about the things I love.

I will be honest here. I will not embellish things…I am what I am. I spend too much sometimes, eat too much most of the times, am guilty of being frumpy sometimes…and reading in the blog-world if I’m not careful can cause me to hate myself.

This is my way of simply saying…it’s ok to be YOU. Be the best YOU you can be..but always remember this….best said by Dave Ramsey himself:

“"We spend money on things we don’t need, to impress people we really don’t like.”

Don’t get caught in the trap…..read, be inspired, but do not feel un-important. Love your family and LIVE.

Blue Agave on sale!!

2010-02-08T11:57:00.001-06:00

Amazon has this organic raw blue agave on sale this week for $16.21 for a two pack (88 oz total!). Choose subscribe and save for a 15% savings on top of that! Order, then go to the subscribe & save area and cancel – it’s easy to do and it saves you quite a bit!!!

So…..88 ounces for $13.78 or $.156 per ounce! GREAT price!

THIS is an added bonus to stockpiling!

2010-02-08T10:13:00.001-06:00

Well…what a MORNING!!!!

It was forecasted to be rainy and around 50 degrees. This morning it was rather chilly and the rain started….and then…oh and then!!!!

Can you see it? We’re getting SNOW!!! Here in Alabama that is SO uncommon!! Schools here close for the FORECAST of snow, much less the unexpected! However, so far everything BUT the main interstate through town is open! SO strange.

Still though…I’m not worried. I talked to a friend and she was panicking because she was out of milk, needed some bread, eggs, other foods, etc. Now granted we may not have everything we dream of if we’re stuck here a day or so, but we will have plenty! As long as the power doesn’t go out, lol!!!! That reminds me…must stockpile candles soon!

Hows the weather where you are??? My family is in Virginia and they have 30 inches – I cannot imagine!!! Seriously!! I want to see pictures!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-02-07T22:52:00.001-06:00

Monday: Chicken Stirfry with fried rice

Tuesday: Beef Fajitas, salsa & chips

Wednesday: Hamburger helper, english peas, garlic bread

Thursday: Grilled Shrimp, roasted garlic vegetables, corn

Friday: Eating at MILs house for Feb. bdays

Saturday: Hamburgers, Fried Potatoes, lima beans

Sunday: Vegetable Soup, parkerhouse rolls

Breakfasts:

Yogurt/Fruit/Granola parfaits

scrambled egg & spinach burritos

sausage & fruit

Lunches

Turkey & Cheese grilled quesadillas

Salad with shredded chicken or shrimp

Shrimp/Veggie stirfry with rice

Homemade Lunchables

fruit

Sweets

I bought a half gallon of ice cream. My mom catered a wedding this weekend and brought over a gallon bag each of grapes, canteloupe and honeydew, plus we were also given two personal sized watermelons. Couple that with the apples, oranges & bananas we already had, we’re overrunning with fresh fruit! We also got a huge gallon bag full of carrots, broccoli, squash & zucchini, which is why we’re having so much stir-fry as well.

Since I’m planning on trying my best to stay out of the stores and use this month to focus on organizing what I’m already blessed with, I’m trying to make meals out of strictly what we have.

Kroger Trip unwrapped…..

2010-02-05T12:16:00.001-06:00

This is the last week of the wonderful Kroger sales!!! :D I had a really good time – plus this trip netted me a TON of marked down meat!!! :D My freezer will be hurting, lol – but this meat should last us for around 4-5 months. THIS is how you buy meat and stay on a budget!

20 Quaker Quakes $.99 minus $.50 instant – $.75 Q so free plus overage

20 Kraft Shredded Cheese $1.49 – $.50 instant - $1/2 Q’s = $.49 each

33 Ham Steaks @ $.49 per pound (marked down from $2.99/lb)

45 pounds of ground chuck – $.50/lb (marked down from $1.99)

Organic Milk $1.99 marked down from $5.69

Bananas

30 lbs chicken quarters at $.25/lb (marked down from $.69

8 Rotel Tomatoes $1.49 – $.50 instant – $.55/2 coupon = $$.70 each (NOT a good price for me – UGH!)

2 rolls sausage $2.50 each

Lunchable $1.79

10 Sister Shubert Dinner Rolls - $2.49 – $.50 instant – $1 Q so $.99 each

Ice Cream $1.39

Coleslaw mix $1

Lettuce $1.39

2 Goldfishes $1.38 – $.50 instant – $.75 Q so $.13 each

bananas $1.35

Digiornio Pizza $3.19 minus free coupon

fish sticks $4.69

Turkey lunch meat $3.50

2 Kroger dressings $1.25 each

ALSO used a mailer coupon for $5 off my order.

Total before coupons: $423.41

Total AFTER coupons: $93.95 or savings of 77.81%!!!!!!!!!!!!

That should be my last BIG trip of the month. My freezer is STUFFED full and I’ve got to stop – no matter HOW good the deals are!!!! ;)

Kroger Trip 2/5/2010

2010-02-05T08:40:00.001-06:00

My latest Kroger trip will be up this afternoon!!! Sneak peak…..

Shelf: $416.71

Paid: $93.95!!

I have to get it all treked in, eat lunch, get the boys down for their naps, photograph it, put it up and then I’ll post!! Look for the rundown later this afternoon!

Dave Ramsey on sale!!!!

2010-02-05T08:12:00.001-06:00

Dave Ramsey is my FAVORITE talk show host. The man is so practical (usually)! We are currently paying our debt off too – hence the “journey to debt freedom.” Today his FPU class is nearly HALF OFF – only 300 available though! Shop Fast!

Change your family tree – live on beans and rice rice & beans and be FREEEEEEE! (and follow my blog to eat more than just beans and rice, lol!)

Baby Shoes for $5 each!

2010-02-04T08:09:00.001-06:00

WIGGEES is running a GREAT sale!! Baby shoes are marked down to $5 a pair if you buy more than 3 pairs and use the code 3ormore!!

Shipping is a straight charge of $6.95 per order. They seem to be slightly slow on shipping (from what I see) but for $5 a pair – why not!?

Thanks to the gals at Diaperswappers for sharing the deal!

FREE books!!!

2010-02-04T07:43:00.001-06:00

I LOVE to read, in fact I have to watch myself very carefully not to spend a ton of money every month on reading! Here’s a great deal on several books!!

First – download the “Kindle for PC” software from Amazon. This will allow you to read all the books for the fantastic but pricey Kindle on your computer.

Then search the kindle book area and narrow the results to the lowest cost books first. There are a LOT of FREE books to read! Lots are the old classics, but I’ve discovered something – if you search every couple of days they’ll lower the price to free on a select few books, then put them back up to full price within a few days. I’ve got around 30 books this way.

Current titles available for free include:

My disclaimer – I am not reccommending any of these books directly, (though Robin Jones Gunn is a fabulous Christian author!) so read to your own discretion. I have not read these, so I am not saying they are quality or clean, just spreading the knowledge that they are there. ;)

Publix Deals!

2010-02-03T16:26:00.001-06:00

Sarah has just posted this weeks PUBLIX Deals!!!! There’s some great things!

Go to her blog at Fiddledeedeemom to check them out!

$.13/bag Goldfish!

2010-02-02T15:13:00.000-06:00

Pepperidge Farm has just released a $.75/1 coupon for goldfish!!!

Kroger has these on sale this week as part of their "Buy 10 get $5 off" promotion. Here they were $.88 after the $.50 off, so this coupon would make for $.13 goldfish for me!!

Go Here to print - remember to go "back" to be able to print two!

thanks fiddledeedeemom for the heads up on the coupon release!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-02-01T18:37:00.001-06:00

Monday: Turnip Greens, Fried Potatoes, Cornbread

Tuesday: Ribs, baked potatoes, corn on the cob

Wednesday: Chicken quesadillas

Thursday: Steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob & chocolate cake – our 5th anniversary!

Friday: Fried Fish, cheesy potatoes, purple hull peas, cornbread

Saturday: Frito Chili Pie, fruit salad

Sunday: Beef Roast, potatoes & carrots

Breakfasts:

Biscuits, fruit, egg burritos, cereal, yogurt, bacon – depends on the day.

Lunch: Grilled Cheese, turkey roll-ups, leftover ham, mac’n’cheese, chicken nuggets, fruit, chips, tater tots – depends on the day

Baking: Bread & Snickerdoodles

Monthly Receipt Check-up

2010-02-01T11:31:00.001-06:00

Well, it’s a NEW MONTH!!!! :D Technically my “month” begins with this Wednesday, since that’s payday. However, I’ll keep my receipt check-ups to the First day of the month so it’ll be easier. ;)

Totals as shown above:

Shelf Cost: $1,136.38

Total Paid (out of $600 budget) $468.94

Saved: $667.94 or 58.78%!

I was hoping for at least 60% so I’ll have to work harder next month!!!

REDBOX free movie rental

2010-02-01T09:29:00.001-06:00

Anyone familiar with REDBOX movie rental kiosks? I’ve never used one, but they are everywhere it seems!

Today only use the code xn4nxnj to get a FREE one day rental!

Enjoy!

Saving while shopping online….

2010-02-01T09:07:00.001-06:00

I shop a LOT online. Not just things that I shouldn’t be buying, but legitimate things such as groceries, diapers, clothes, even appliances. Most online places have promotional codes at various times, and lots of places have “buy online, pick up in person.” options. At worst, you can at least shop through various cashback sites. Here’s some of my little tips on how I save money.

CASHBACK websites

My first goal is to find the place that has the most cashback for the store I’m shopping at. I check Ebates, Bing cashback & finally Mr. Rebates. Whichever has the most cashback I use. Bing sometimes doesn’t give CB if you use a coupon, so if it’s close enough and the coupon is good enough, I’ll use Ebates or Mr. Rebates instead. Both of those send cb 4 times a year, while Bing allows you to request the CB after 60 days on most purchases – with Ebay you get instant CB. YES, BING has CB of 8% on EBAY purchases (must be BIN and pay with paypal).

COUPONS

Before I purchase ANYTHING online I first google “name of store coupon” and usually I find a promotional code. These range from 10-20% off and sometimes free shipping. Every little bit HELPS!

Using the “buy now, pick up in person” function:

This option works well because I can often find coupons that will work online that are not printable. For example – my laptop. I was able to buy it AT bestbuy.com using BING cashback and got $14.00 back by Cashback. I chose the “pick it up” option instead of shipping and they charged nothing for that. In person, the cashback option didn’t work.

Staples also has a great “ship it to the store” option. At Christmas, I picked up a digital picture frame for my parents. It was $39.99 online, plus I got a $10 coupon by email, so it was $29.99 plus tax. I had it shipped to the store for free, and that Friday while running my errands ran by, showed my ID and picked it up. (of course, the kicker with that is the next week it was $10 cheaper at the store and I called and got a price adjustment so it was a whopping $20 for it!).

That’s my quick take on online shopping. It can be catchy, as it’s a lot easier for me to click “buy it now” than it is to walk up to a store, shop and take the time to check out, but if utilized correctly it can become a great money-saving tool!!!

Again…here’s the links to the CB shops (minus BING, they just can be found by www.bing.com/shopping)

EBATES sign-up link

(and of COURSE – my favorite online shopping tool? SWAGBUCKS, baby!!!)

I do all my searches through SB and get $5 Amazon cards – at least once am month!

Kroger Mega Sale – savings of 71%

2010-01-30T16:32:00.001-06:00

I totally couldn’t stay away!!! :D I had to keep the kids out of the bathroom area while my husband painted today – he was painting the closets and trim of our bathroom. What better way to keep the kids out of his hair than going shopping, right? ;)

This is my FAVORITE sale of the year. I usually try to stock up a LOT during this sale. Here’s my results:

KROGER 1/30/2010

120 cans hunts tomatoes – $.99 each, instant $.50 off, used (40) $.45/3 coupons so $.19 each

10 Hormel Chili’s @ 1.29, instant $.50 off, used $.55/2 coupons so $.51 each

2 Claussens pickles $2.79 minus instant $.50 off, used $1 coupons so $1.29 each

18 packs of Kraft Cheese $1.49 – $.50 off, used $1/2 coupons so $.49 each

4 Philadelphia Cream Cheese - $.1.49 each, minus $.50 instant, used $1/4 so $.74 each

20 Kraft Macaroni & Cheese $.99 – instant $.50 off, used B3G1 coupons (took $.99 off) so $.24 each

6 Pepperidge Farm goldfishs $1.38 each, minus $.50 instant so $.88 each

Tater Tots $1.88

Gwaltney Hot Dogs $1

2 cans water chestnuts $.79

5 Dozen Eggs $1.19/dozen

Napkins $3.29

Shrimp $2.99 pound, $3.94 total (managers special)

3 Dannon yogurt smoothie packs $1.88 each, used $1 coupons

bananas - .73

Corn Tortillas $.99

Total before coupons: $292.57

Total AFTER coupons & instant savings: $83.73 (Savings of 71.38%)

I could’ve done better if I’d had better coupons, but I think I did pretty good considering this is all my weekly grocery needs PLUS stockpiling. I budgeted $75 for the week and I had money left over from last week as well so I paid cash and had a BLAST!!!!!

Still have more coupons for Mac N Cheese and Chili, but they were out of regular mac so I’m going to try again soon. ;)

I’m MIA!

2010-01-29T23:02:00.001-06:00

I’m so sorry I’ve dissapeared for a couple of days – DH and I decided this weekend was a perfect time to start remodeling our bathroom…so I’ve been VERY busy!! Hopefully things will resume as normal around Monday or Tuesday!

So far we’ve decided to:

replace light fixtures

replace faucet

replace towel bar/toilet paper bar

Stain the cabinets

paint

plus I’m working on curtains, towels and all. Of course….frugally. ;)

Free $5 Babies R Us E-Gift Card

2010-01-28T07:32:00.001-06:00

Babies R Us is offering a free $5 E-card if you become a fan on facebook! It’s super easy – just cilck on become a fan then you can enter your information to get the card! YAY – LOVE all these baby deals!!

Just click HERE.

It takes so much time, part two

2010-01-28T07:10:00.000-06:00

Sorry to have left you hanging……

A lot of people still call me coupon queen. I regularly go to the store and get 90% off my groceries. I’ll share my dirty little secret with you though….I don’t clip the weekly coupons from the newspaper.

In fact, as of next week we won’t even GET the newspaper on a regular basis.

What I do is quite simple…I read a lot. I love the forums at A Full Cup and of course there are tons of blogs out there that chat about all the deals you can snap up. Some of those I adore are in my blog roll over to the right. Most of them are in my google reader. I will scroll through and tend to the ones that are most important to me.

On Sunday afternoons, after I get my menu made for the week, I typically log on to AFC and go straight to the Kroger forum. There I can look at the matchups and as I scroll through my paper ad I begin to see if there are things we might be able to stock up on. Then, in another tab I go first to my favorite coupon clipping service, Lorihas3kids. She’s extremely fast at shipping and a very sweet woman. I met her through Ebay and she has no idea I’m even a blogger so this isn’t a paid ad, mind you!

Most coupon clipping websites charge a nominal fee for multiples of coupons. This week, I bought 40 coupons total from Ms. Lori. $4 with no shipping costs and I’m ready to go! The coupons come already clipped and ready for the store.

This saves me SO MUCH TIME. Yes, if I have a whole coupon insert from the paper I will scan through it and if it’s a product I regularly buy I might tear the page out. I put all the pages torn out in a pile, then at the end I can spend 5 minutes or less clipping the coupons I need.

I do the same thing on Wednesday mornings for my local Publix store.

The coupons usually come in two or three days later. In the interim though, I sit down (or stand for that matter) and make a quick list of the things I bought coupons for, along with the number of items I need. Then, after all my coupons have come in, I stick them all in my trusty coupon holder that I keep in my purse ALL THE TIME. It’s actually a nice little holder – it came from Dave Ramsey’s website.

Then it’s off to the stores – I go from one end to the other systematically. Since I already have my list with exactly what I need and the quantities, I just throw in my cart what I’m there for. Then it’s off to the checkout lanes. At MOST I’m in the store 30 minutes and most of the time it’s less. Yes, if it’s not just a coupon run and a full grocery shop it will take longer, but that’s usually when I just have 5-10 coupons.

Couponing often gets a bad rap because it DOES take time and lots of women don’t let the coupons work for them, rather they work for the coupons. HARD. I don’t allow myself to get caught up in the fever of “oooh, this is a new product that looks cool, and since I have a coupon I’m going to buy it! This usually ends up making you spend more money for food you wouldn’t normally buy.

That’s how I regularly save 75% or more on specific grocery trips. Yes, there are some trips where I might only end up saving 25%-30%, but because I save so much in others, it averages out to at least getting 50% off my groceries, at any time. I only spend about 1-1.5 hours a week on grocery coupons and savings. I’ll spend more time blogging about it than I did planning and executing the trips. That’s what works for me. It might change as my boys get older, go to school and I have more time. Then again….it might not. ;)

Diapers for Cheap!!!

2010-01-27T17:06:00.001-06:00

Diapers.com has Luvs diapers for $6.99 a pack,(purchase 7 pks) then you add a pampers travel wipes for $1.99 - makes the total $50.92. Add the code DIAPERS999 to get $10 off (new customers only) for a total of $40.92 - submit a $14.97 rebate - makes them $3.70 a pack.

Gets better though - BING cashback says it's 3-10% back. Not sure of the exact but still great deal! Ebates also does cashback. (didn't put my referral codes there)

This made my diapers come out at $.08 per diaper which is great!

Good Deal Alert – Publix

2010-01-27T11:17:00.001-06:00

Publix here in the Atlanta Region have Red Delicious Apples on sale this week for $.69/lb! GREAT price on apples!!!

Missing Something?

2010-01-27T10:22:00.001-06:00

If you’re thinking you’ve missed some shopping trips of mine…don’t worry. The fact is…..I haven’t been shopping!!!

Dh stopped at the store to get me a head of lettuce, otherwise the last shopping trip I took was last week when I got the free stuff on January 20th. Otherwise, I’ve just stayed out of the stores. We have a full freezer, moderately full pantry and plenty of other foods. Yes, I’m planning on going for the cheap Kroger deals this week, but otherwise I’m hoping to stick to eggs & milk.

I think the BEST way to save money is staying home.

WALMART deals

2010-01-27T09:43:00.001-06:00

If you only have a Wal-Mart in your area, there are still good deals to be had! MoneySavingMom just listed her great compilation! FREE stuff everywhere!!!

GO check it out!

Thanks MSM!!!

Publix BOGO Deals are posted!

2010-01-27T09:30:00.001-06:00

Sarah @ Fiddledeedee posted all the BOGO deals at Publix this week! Visit her for the full list! Thanks, Sarah!!

But it takes so much TIME!!!!

2010-01-27T08:56:00.001-06:00

One thing I hear often from women who want to know more about my couponing is that they “just don’t have time” to save money! That is a completely valid concern. Couponing DOES take more time and thought than it takes to just buy what is needed for the week. However, I look at it from the standpoint of paying myself.

I’m a stay at home mom. Before this, I was an IT specialist with a national credit bureau. Believe me, this life I lead now is LIGHT years away from what I thought I’d be doing at age 25, to be sure.

By choosing to stay at home, there are sacrifices that I have to make. My husband doesn’t make a ton of money, so I have to do my part in making that money stretch out.

When I first started couponing, I spent HOURS and HOURS each week – cutting EVERY coupon out, reading blog after blog, working up scenarios in my mind, going to the store nearly every other day. I remember WAKING UP in the middle of the night crying because I was running numbers in my sleep of what deals and how much and clipping coupons. I lugged a huge velcroed binder from store to store, and the usual trips to the store tumbled into hours long vacations with absolutely no relaxation in sight. I was POSSESSED.

My husband finally sat me down and basically said “sweetie, I appreciate what you’re doing, but this HAS to stop. You’re grouchy and your time is so much more valuable than saving this money at the grocery store. You’ve got to find balance". Isn’t that sweet?

Really….that began my search on BALANCE. I searched my heart and realized I needed to back away from the scissors for a while.

To be honest, I walked away from couponing for 19 months. To show the depth of my obsession, in that 19 months we never ran out of shampoo, toilet paper, soap and kool-aid. We still have 10 plus bottles of shampoo left from those I got free back in January 2008. I used my last brownie mix two weeks ago. Nothing is out of date yet, but it has taken all that time to even begin working through our stash – can you imagine if I’d not stopped? Yikes!

So exactly what DO I do to save money grocery shopping? I’m glad you asked….I’ll tell you, tomorrow. ;)

MY Kroger List

2010-01-26T20:28:00.001-06:00

‘

I found another GREAT matchup site for the KROGER deals from this week! Thanks Mrspennypincher!!!!

My personal List for Kroger’s mega sale this week:

Claussen Pickles - $1.49 per jar (the one brand name thing I won’t compromise on

Finish Powerball Tablets – $.49

Hormel Chili – $.24 per can

Hunts canned tomatoes – $.20

Kraft cheese – either shredded or block $.99 per pound

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese – $.25 per box

Mission Flour Tortillas – $.49

Ritz Crackers $.99 per box

Post Cereal $.19 per box

Sister Shubert Rolls $.99 per pkg

Philadelphia Cream Cheese – FREE

possibly Baked lays – $.75

Tyson Chicken Nuggets for $2.99

Can’t wait till my coupons get here!!

Kroger – week of January 25th

2010-01-26T08:03:00.001-06:00

I promised a link to some great Kroger Deals this week!! Here in the SE, these sales are supposed to run through 2/7 so hopefully we’ll save some money here! I have already bought my coupons so all I' do now is wait! :D

What I’m most excited about:

Kraft block cheese for $.99

Tyson Chicken Nuggets for $2.99
Hormel Chili for $.24 a can

Baked Lay’s for $.74 a bag

Philadelphia Cream Cheese for FREE

Hunt’s Tomatoes for $.24 a can

Visit Mommy Snacks for the complete listing

My review of the “MagicJack” phone system

2010-01-25T21:21:00.001-06:00

We bought the Magic Jack two weeks ago. I did pay an extra $3.95 for expedited shipping. We had a 30 day free trial and I wanted more time to review the product.

Shipping was fast. That was great. Plug it into the USB port on your computer, your phone into the MJ and wait till it pops up on the computer. Easy.

We used it for 6 days and it DID work. It had some trouble with connecting sometimes, and I had a lot of people tell me it always told them I wasn’t “available.” That might have been error on their part, lol.

However, the clincher for us came in the form of dollars and cents. Magic Jack is a wonderful value at $20 a year, but I wanted to factor in the cost of running the computer around the clock as well. My computer unit costs $.69 per 24 hours to use. That equals $250 a YEAR to run. Since I have my laptop now, that computer was adequate for MJ use, just not everyday browsing.

So now it’s up to $270 a year for the cost.

Then I had to find an internet provider that would run without phone service. The cheapest I could get was $42.75 a month plus taxes and fees. That brings it up to $50 a month. So internet alone would’ve been $ 600 a month.

So add it together – internet, MJ and computer running and technically our media costs would be $870 per year, or $72.50 a month.

Right now for landline, unlimited long distance and internet we’re paying $74.68 a month.

So for US – Magic Jack didn’t work. We did have some trouble with calls both going in and out, being spotty – all in all it could be compared to cell phone quality, which is GOOD considering. However, since we did the math, it didn’t work for US.

BUT – we did decide to cut the long distance portion of our phone bill so our new and improved bill will now be roughly $55 a month, still saving us nearly $240 a year!!

I’m really glad we tried Magic Jack, and I’m very disappointed that it didn’t meet MY expectations. However, it’s worth a try if you’ve been thinking about it!

How to get a LAPTOP for $288 shipped

2010-01-25T10:51:00.001-06:00

This laptop is on sale this week at Best Buy for $279.99.

Step One: go to bing.com and open a shopping cashback account. If you go to the store list and click Best Buy, you can get 5% back on the purchase.

Step Two: Once you go to BB online, purchase the laptop and choose pick up in store. This saves $15 in shipping costs.

The total will be $300 roughly depending on your sales tax amount, mine was $302 and with 5% back I’ll only pay $288 for this! :D EXCELLENT deal for a 3gb memory, 250gb hard drive laptop.

AS I said earlier, no this won’t be the quality of a mac or $1000 laptop, but for simple browsing, homeschooling, blogging or the like, it works for me!!!

Best Buy & a Laptop

2010-01-25T10:44:00.001-06:00

Remember yesterday I posted how I finally got my laptop? Well….here’s the story.

I have been looking for a moderately priced laptop for about 6 weeks. I missed the deals at Thanksgiving, though I certainly wasn’t going to camp out at Best Buy or Walmart for days ahead. Last week I saw what I thought was a good deal on a computer somewhere else. I checked into it, but got conflicting reports on whether it had a numeric keypad in addition to the standard laptop keyboard. ALL of my financial spreadsheets make me use my 10 digit keypad and I knew I’d be lost without it. I couldn’t find one for the life of me under what I wanted to spend. DH and I had a budget meeting and we agreed I could take $500 from our tax refund and splurge on the computer since I wasn’t having any luck. Then yesterday Best Buy had a laptop for $279.99 – NOT a netbook, a full fledged laptopl I noticed though that the picture online showed the keypad but the paper ad didn’t. I called out there and the technician said it did NOT have the keypad. Still…at that price I couldn’t be picky. I ordered the laptop, picked it up less than an hour later aand here we are. BEST of all, when I opened the laptop, imagine my surprise when I found that it actually DOES have the keypad and it’s all I dreamed of!

Of course it’s not the top of the line, and of course it’s not the GREATEST, but for my needs (blogging, word processing, etc) it is perfect. BEST of all – of course I used a coupon!

but those details I’m going to put in another post. :) Just didn’t want you to think you were coming into the wrong blog – this is about frugality, not just getting deals.

disclaimer: not all the money came from a tax refund. I received money from my birthday and christmas so in actuallity, I spent only a mere $100 from the tax refund, the rest is earmarked for yes, a snowball payment!

Cheap Roses

2010-01-25T10:33:00.001-06:00

Need a deal on some flowers for Valentine’s Day? The Thrifty Mama just posted how you can get 50 Spray Roses available for $24.99.

Free Oreo Cookies!

2010-01-25T10:27:00.001-06:00

Today on Facebook Oreo’s are being given away free!! You must be a fan and watch for the special order form on the DSRL page at 3pm Eastern Time. Limited to the first 15,000 people so watch carefully!!

In my experience this will give you a coupon for a free package in the mail soon. I did this last month with Stacy’s Pita Chips and have the coupon already!

http://www.facebook.com/oreo?ref=ts

Enjoy!

2010-01-24T22:58:00.001-06:00

I will be adding more deals in the morning - there are some great ones at kroger this week! The biggest news is I will be blogging from my new laptop! I've been saving my blow and birthday money and finally found an incredible deal!! More tomorrow, of course - through all the bad weather we lost quite a few shingles from our roof and I've been shut off from the Internet for a while!! See you all tomorrow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

coupon code...

2010-01-22T16:03:00.000-06:00

ANGEL FOOD MINISTRIES

Angel Food Ministries is offering a coupon code for February. The coupon code is "Feb5" which is good for 5% off a Signature Box of Angel Food. It is good for the first 4000 users only.

Angel Food is a nonprofit organization that offers a box of food at a "discount" to anyone who orders, there is no income requirement.

I have NEVER seen them offer a coupon before, so this is something that will no doubt be jumped upon QUICK!

Barnes andnoble

2010-01-21T13:10:00.000-06:00

I just left barnes and noble and they are running an excellent 75% off sale!!! I was able to score 5 hardback childrens board books for $1.49 each! It's worth checking out!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2010-01-20T15:24:00.000-06:00

Testing mobile blogging....and yes this was my Christmas gift!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saving Money on groceries.....5 simple fast tips!

2010-01-20T14:35:00.000-06:00

I would like to start doing a little series on saving money on your grocery plan - without coupons. I think that clipping coupons gets a bad reputation sometimes, since it does take some time and effort. We all have so much on our plate that not all of us are ABLE to clip coupons, and you know what....that is OK. Do what works for you - that's my mantra. ;)

1) Plan your menu - just plan it!!! I already did a post on what I do, but if you want, google search up there in my google box about menu planning. There are LOTS of webposts by very knowledgeable women about planning. Find something that works for you and simplify it as much as possible so you'll stick with it!

2) While planning, plan AROUND the sales for the week! If you see that chicken is $.99/lb, plan two meals with it. Too many times if we plan what we want first then go shopping without knowing what's on sale, that meat you wanted might end up being way out of budget and will throw you off.

3) Shop reduced racks in advance! Know your meat man! I know that our Kroger reduces their meat at 8am and 2pm, always on the day before they expire. I get my ground beef this way for anywhere between $.40 and $.60 a pound. Of course I have a deep freeze so I can stock these things easily, but that's what saves a lot for me!

4) Keep it organized! I'm not talking about going crazy and inventorying everything and keeping a spreadsheet, I'm just saying keep like things together in the pantry! This way you know what you have and you don't lose things in the black hole that exists in all pantries. ;) Having to throw out food because it's gone bad is a huge waster of money!

5) Finally....buy generic!! Usually the generic IS cheaper, no matter what. Sometimes you can get name brand for cheaper with coupons, but remember, this is my list of things you do without coupons! There are lots of things that taste nearly the same! It's ok to be brand loyal on a few items, but buying generic on 95% of items will cut your bill fast! You could always switch back next week if the item wasn't the best, but if you found 10 things in the next month that you could handle eating generic, think of the cash you could save!

Stop & Shop or Shaw's - free quaker quakes

2010-01-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

This week at both stores you can get FREE Quaker Quakes with even possible overage..

Quaker Quakes Rice Snacks, On Sale $1.00 Use $0.75/1 Quaker Rice and Multigrain Snack cpn (RP 01/10/10) Should Double to $1.50 Final Cost: FREE + $.50 overage

If you have 2 coupons then grab 3 bags and they will all be FREE!
*Sale ends Thursday 1/21/10

Information from FrugalRImama