Michael's deals

My wonderful sister in law bought me an American express gift card to use for a cake decorating class. Exactly what I wanted! :) I'm very excited I think cake decorating will be a useful skill to have. I signed up today, and after some searching and phone calls they figured out what I needed to buy for the class. I wanted to know today because I had a 50% off coupon that expired today, and usually their coupons are for 40% off. Plus I was there and I can always use the coupon from tomorrow's paper on something else. Anyways, I bought the Wilton beginner's box. Normally $20 but i used my coupon. So far its $15 for the first class and $10 for the supplies. The next kit is even more expensive so if its something I enjoy I will watch for another coupon.

Michael's has their Christmas items 50% off. Not the best! I like to wait for bargains till the items are further discounted. Many items are on sale for 50% off right before Christmas anyway. However their pre-made Christmas floral decor was 70% off. I had two years of flower shop in high school so I usually prefer to make my own arrangements. However the wreath I bought was so discounted I could not have made the same wreath for that price. Normally $39.99 I paid $11. I wanted one that had a winter look as opposed to a Christmas wreath because I plan to leave it up in till Its time for the spring wreath.



My class, supplies, and wreath would have cost a whopping $75!
My total was $36 but only $21 of that came out of my pocket because of sister in law's gift. I have $35 left on my gift card and I want to save it for the next course.

We now continue our regularly scheduled ramblings

Sorry for the unplanned blogging break! we has some un-expected guests an ended up being insanely busy the last week. It was fun but I like a more mellow, less stressful Christmas. I don't feel like I had time to really soak in the holiday.

My very favorite Christmas present this year was a beautiful black and white bowl made by women in Africa. My mom gave it to me, along with some literature on what bowl making means to them. The steady source of income has really changed these women's lives. It allows them to buy mosquito netting that would otherwise be too expensive, send their children to school, buy fresh water, best of all instills a sense of pride in themselves and their children. I love how beautiful the bowl is, but i really love that it helped someone at the same time. Right now it smells faintly of grass. Every time I see it (or smell it) I smile and think about the woman who made the bowl.

ugh

Have you ever had one of those days when you know you shouldn't get out of bed? But you have to because if you stay in bed nothing will get done all day. The house will literally come apart at the seams. So you get up. Later in the day you end up stripping off every article of clothing in front of your washer the very second you walk into the door. Because it was just that kind of day.

Btw if your not sure your gas stopped pumping when you clicked the nozzle. Click it again. Trust me, you will not regret it.

Rite Aid again

I wanted to get another bottle of soft soap hand soap so we stopped into rite aid for another 2 bottles. Should have cost about $1.20 however I was not alone dh was with me. So we bought a few extra things :)

Before sales and coupons $21.48

2 vanilla mochas $3.98 (after deals $2)
2 mochas $3.58 (after deals $2)
1 chocolate covered cherries $1.99 (after deals .99)
5 cadberry bars $7.95 (after deals $5)
2 liquid soap $3.98 (after deals $1)

After deals $11.28

Not horrible but still more expensive then $1.20! :)

Picture

Here is the picture I intended to upload with my last post. Does it look like it came from the dollar store to you? It doesn't look like that to me.

Ouch!!

Last night as I was typing my drug store purchases it occurred to me how very expensive everything is. If I had spent full price on those items it would have cost $150.09.

The only items I would consider 'frivolous' would be the candles. However I live in a house with 8 animals, that purchase is justified. What about the water filter? I don't consider that frivolous because my husband and I have had upset stomachs off and on since moving to our town a few years ago. When I researched the subject I found that it could be caused by a parasite in the water. So we're going to try it to see if it helps. I could have bought a cheaper model but DH requested the flavor style. He even told me I'm only to buy the packets for him when I find them on sale :) My hubby is becoming more frugal everyday. I could have passed on the make-up but everything was a good price. The lip gloss will go in my mom's stocking. The rechargeable batteries are for my dad's stocking. The dog bones are for my sanity (priceless, let me tell you) and all the cold stuff is for my husband. He has a touch of a cold.

Before deals I would have spent $150 yesterday. If you remove the candles and make-up at their full retail price the other less frivolous items would have cost $113.69. OUCH! My goodness things are so expensive. When I look back I don't understand how I afforded these things. Especially before I met my husband, i was a broke college student. I remember being very cautious about how much i used (even more so then today) and feeling frustrated that I was always buying these expensive items! I'm so glad I found rebate programs and coupons. Now not only do necessities cost us much less but I can afford to indulge myself and Dh for almost half of what the necessities would cost full price! After rebates and deals I spent $64.70, my frivolous items were $17.70 of that. Get on the coupon bandwagon people! :) Choo Choo!

Christmas gift for sister in law

Sister in law's main present will be a bottle of wine. But I wanted to make her a pamper basket because she works a bunch. I'm going to add homemade soap and bath salts. The whole basket cost me $8. Everything came from the dollar store except the Vaseline lotion. Do you feel bad giving things from the dollar store as presents? I don't because these are all items I would like to receive, therefore I have no problem giving the items to others. In fact I bought the note pad, lotion, and gloves for myself as well.

Rite Aid

Total before everything $26.90

After sales
2 glade candles $5.98 on sale for $5. ($4 after coupon)
1 glade trio $9.99 on sale for $7.99 ($3.99 after coupon)
1 soft soap $2.19 on sale for $1.49 ($.49 after coupon from coupon book)
1 sunsilk conditioner $3.99 on sale for $3 ($1.5 after coupon)
1 sunsilk shampoo $3.99 on sale for $3 ($1.50 after coupon)
1 buckleys cough syrup on $5.99 on sale for $4.29

Total after sales $24.77
Total after coupons $13.90
After rebate $5.63 (for $4.29 buckleys, $2 for glade candles, $2 for glade trio candles)

Walgreens

Total before coupons $125.32

Pur flavor $29.99 ($17.59 after $5 rebate and $7.50 coupon)
2 dog bones $5.00 ($5 after sale)
1 Jane mini powder brush $5.99 (free after rebate)
3 halls cough drops $7.77 ($4.17 in store coupons)
2 vaseline lotions $3.98 ($1.98 after 2 $1 coupons)
3 glade refills $8.97 ($3.97 after $3 coupon and $2 rebate)
1 eye shadow $2.59
2 sudafed cold $7.98 ($5.98 after coupons)
1 lip gloss $2.79
1 duracell charger $10.97 ($7.97 after $3 coupon)

Total after sales $93.14
Total after coupons $72.0
total after rebate $59.04

Total savings $66.28

I wonder

What does it say about you as a person when taking your corgi across the ferry you bring his coat? A coat that was purchased for a now huge dog but still fits your small one. And because you have to ride outside (in a partially enclosed, unheated very cold) dog area on the upper deck you bring a blanket. Then you spend a minute or two figuring out the best way to cover your lap while covering the dog. (folded in half so that he can lay on the blanket and be covered on top as well)Or that in the morning when its cold you have 3 cats on your bed, all covered in blankets. And when you go to take off the fleece you were wearing you be sure and place it body heat side down on a grateful cat. Because you know she will love the warmth but even more she wants it because it smells like you. Lets say you even went so far as to make blankets for these heat loving cats. Maybe even a rice hot pad. What would it say about you?

Late night grocery stop

Last night my husband and I needed to run to the store for dish soap. I took the opportunity to pick up a few more things

we bought

egg nog $3 (hubby took the opportunity too! Yuck)
half gallon of milk $1.99
parmesan $3.69 (2.69 after coupon)
2 cookie chubs $4 (3 after coupon)
2 joy dish washing soaps $3 (2.70 after coupon)
3 pounds of clementines $2.99 (2.49 after coupon)

Total before sales and coupons $29.99
Total after sales $18.93
Total after coupons $16.08

Christmas tree 'O christmas tree!

My family's Christmas tree has quite a story. You see when I was a very small girl we were moving from one state to another. Along the way a box fell off the trailer. My parents went back to try and find it, but they could not find it. When they arrived and unpacked nothing was found to be missing so they figured it must have been a figment of their imagination. That is in till Christmas time. When they went to set up their artificial tree they found the top of the tree, and the bottom of the tree but no middle. The middle of the tree was lost on some freeway. What did they do? Go buy a new tree? Use a real tree? Nope! I don't know how new trees work but my parents is a sturdy pole with holes for very sturdy branches. Every year the branches are completely removed, which means there are ways to improvise. They taped the poles for the bottom and top of the tree together. Then with some creative shaping of the branches (bending to fill holes) it comes out to a decent tree. I'm not saying Martha Stewart would want it in her house but its a respectable tree. Once everything is on it, its very beautiful. My parents have used this tree every since I was little, perhaps for sometime before then. And I love this tree,i really do. For a short period when I was in middle school I was a bit 'embarrassed' by our crazy tree (even though you cant tell with everything on it, no ones knows in less we tell them!) but as I got older I realized how wonderful and unique it is. Every year my mom threatens to buy a new one, but secretly I think she loves it as much as I do. Besides there would be a riot. OK so maybe just one angry grown daughter but who wants that?

As for the ornaments themselves they have been carefully collected over the years. Every year at Christmas time my mom would buy me an ornament. Its fun to look back on them and see what ugly things I liked as a child lol. We started buying one on each vacation as well. The tree is full of memories! We have tree decorating traditions as well. There is the pink bell that we have to argue over as to who's ornament it is. (MINE by the way!) The ornaments I don't like that I hang in the back, and she moves to the front. The ugly but oh so beloved (by me) mushroom ornament house ornament with two little mice tenants (not real ones) that I look for the whole time we're hanging ornaments. The bronco tree ornament that will make us cry, my grandmother had a whole tree full of them and it makes us miss her. The random ornaments I've never seen that she picks up, and has to answer 'whats this???' The not so cute ornaments I made us a child that my mom smiles at to this day. The tinsel fight. But most of all its a day mom and I cherish as we remember old memories and create new ones.

To anyone else it might be an ugly old tree. But to me its more beautiful then any designer tree. That misshapen, duct taped, middle less tree holds so much more then a few Christmas baubles. It holds a lifetime of love.

Merry Christmas

How is everyone doing on projects and presents? I don't think we're doing too badly I at least have an idea for everyone if not the gift. I am however far beyond the projects! I hate stressing out at Christmas but its beyond our control this year. My husband's command decided this was a great time to make the guys work 92 hour weeks. That's 6am-8pm every day for three weeks. And by everyday i mean weekends too my husband has had just 1 day off in three weeks. So on top of my usually responsibilities I have all of his. See? Stress! Then add Christmas activities (decorating, shopping, cooking, wrapping) and we have a ripe case of stress!

What can I change?

Next year set up an automatic Christmas savings account.
$25 every check will be deposited. That's not much at the time but by Christmas it will be close to $600.

Continue to by Christmas presents year round as I find them.
I did shop year round this year and it helped but I want to do so more aggressively.

Start projects earlier!
I would really love to bake some cookies in summer to freeze for Christmas time.

What can I fix right now?

Take things one step at a time.
A counter of dishes tends to over whelm me. But If i squeeze in a sink full here and there it doesn't seem like such a huge problem. The dishes get done and my stress stays down. Wrapping a present here and there is not as mentally draining as wrapping a spare room loaded with presents.

Play with the dogs frequently.
That seems counter productive doesn't it? But my puppies need exercise. If they get one big playing session they don't work as much, they play far harder when they get to rest between play sessions. Which means they are more tired, less likely to get into trouble, and less likely to be in my face all day. Besides I've found that playing with them is good for me too. I relax and the fresh air tends to erase headaches.

Realize that I am not super woman.
If I push myself till I am stressed, exhausted, and cranky what good am I to anyone? I'm human just like everyone else and some times I have to let things slide. I could spend all evening cleaning, or I could sit and spend time with the husband I haven't seen all day.

Make time for things that are important.
Wednesday instead of whipping through things that need to be done I'm taking the day off to go decorate the Christmas tree with my mom. We do it together every year and the thought of doing it without me made both of us cry. This year we did not manage our annual Christmas craft fair but that did not break our hearts. Decorating the tree apart does, so it is a priority. To me Christmas is about memories, traditions and family. It is not about how clean my floors are. Every year my husband and I drive to a U-Cut Christmas tree farm. We hike all over the huge fields looking for the perfect tree, freezing our bums off the whole time. Last year the patch was far away from the office, my husband hauled the tree over his shoulder. We LOVE it. As soon as he gets some time off during the day you can bet we will be strapping a Christmas tree to the roof of our 4 door car! Incidentally its much cheaper then 'fresh' tree lots and you can see the whole tree you don't find a big bald spot when you unwrap it.

One of the things I love about frugality is it encourages you to let go of everyone else's expectations for your life and focus on things that are important to you. Why shouldn't I use that focus in my life as well as my finances?

Walgreens deals

I went to walgreens today and I completely forgot to pick up a rebate book! Bad Cupcake!
Before sales and coupons our total was $28.20.
After sales it was $17.70

We bought a gillette fusion gift box $9.99 after sales ($5.99 after coupon)
a dog bone (lol yes we needed more)$3
3 rubber maid index card boxes $1.50 on clearance
4 cans swanson chicken broth $2 ($1.6 after coupon)

After coupons the total was $13.30

On a side note

The cats love the feline greenie treats. The orange menace followed me around the house while I gave them to his sisters because he wanted more! And yes, he got what he wanted. :) I'm excited they like them because the greenies should do the best job teeth cleaning. I fully intend to brush their teeth we even have the animal supplies but with dh working so many hours it is not possible right now. Not to mention being a horribly unpleasant experience. Our vet even said she could understand not doing it, she recommends it but does not do it either. :) Our oldest cat has to be wrapped in two towels with just a paw showing to get her nails clipped because she hates it so much. The though of brushing her teeth makes me shudder. But like I said their health is very important so we will attempt it. Eventually. With full body armor on.

Pets mart

I love petsmart. I find them to be almost always cheaper then petco. They have great sales. Last year after Christmas they had tons of toys and bones clearanced. We bought a lot of things to donate to the animal shelter and will be doing so again this year, as well as stocking up for my beasts. We were almost out of dry dog food so we headed over to them yesterday. We make the choice to feed our animals quality food and it definitely comes with a more expensive price tag. I used to feed the kitties (when it was just me, and 3 cats) friskies it was $17 for a huge bag at Costco. But when I switched to Nutro i noticed a change in their coats, they were much silkier, and they eat less. Usually we find a big bag on sale for $26 it feeds 5 cats for a month. That works out to $26/ 28 days in a month (for purposes of comparison) = 93 cents a day. About 17 cents per cat per day for dry food. I can live with that! Their health is very important to us. We feed them indoor weight management and out vet wants us to continue, but she also recommended feeding them tooth cleaning treats. The dog food is usually around $30 for 44 pounds and I think it last a little over a month but I'm not sure. $30/ 28 days = $1.07 a day. $1.07 a day / 2 dogs = .54 cents per dog per day for dry food. I marked the date we bought the food on the calender so I can figure out how long their food lasts.

PetsMart total

Total before coupons and sales $71.25
Total after sales $65.89
Total after coupons $52.23

We bought (prices include sales)
44 pounds of nutro sensitive stomach for dogs $33.99 (#30.99 after $3 coupon)
4 bowls of meow mix $1.96 (.98 after buy 4 get 2 free coupon)
2 cans 22oz purina dog food $1.68 (.68 after $1 off two coupon)
1 big box nutro bog biscuits for sensitive tummies $3.49 ($2.49 after $1 coupon) 1 whiskers lickin treats $1.59 (used coupon to get friskies treats free w purchase)
1 pouch friskies tarter control treats .99 (free after coupon)
3 bags chew eez dog rolls $9 ($6 after buy 2 get 1 free coupon)
1 bag meow mix treats $1.49 (.10 should have been free after coupon but I did not catch the cashier's error till now)
1 box busy bones $2.50 ($1.50 after $1 coupon)
1 pouch feline greenie dental treats $2.99 ($1.99 after $1 coupon)
a plastic silencer for dog tags $1
For some reason the cashier rang my $3 off coupon twice so I saved an additional $3 off everything. Strange! When I walked up to her and plucked my stack of coupons on the counter she sighed and said 'oh man! You want to use all of these??' duh. Why else would i hand them to you? To show off? To be fair this is my first cashier who gave me a little bit of a hassle since I started using coupons. I don't really care if it irritates her its completely legal and I won't pay extra because she sighs at me. Her coupon phobia is her loss! :)

Walgreens spa rewards-update

I received my walgreens spa certificates a few days ago. I'm beyond thrilled! $100 in spa certificates for spending $4 on 4 cough syrups? That's wonderful! $4 for 4 cough syrups is a great deal by it self but spa rewards on top of that? I'm quite happy! Thanks crystal for the information!

Sorry!

Sorry for the break everyone my internet has been down for 3 days!

Dollar Tree

I braved the slushy winter mess today, in search of a rain coat for little dog. He has 2 but they are full coats that do not work well for male dogs. Need I say more? Since I was out in the gunk anyway I headed over to the Dollar Tree. Man I love that store! I can go hog wild buy anything i want and it never breaks the budget. I can't do that anywhere else! It seems like their holiday decorations are better then last year. I love the small welcome mats, mine is a bright green that says 'joy' it helps keep the mud down somewhat because I put one inside and out. I found a beautiful green table runner that fits my table. I moved the one I bought from the dollar store to my bookcase. I bought a whole lot more then that but a list is not much fun to read. Today they were having a 10% off sale which tickled me, a dollar store sale!

I did buy little dog a rain coat for $10. It works better but its still not right. Little dog is a Pembroke corgi and because of that the coat is too long in front. I did buy the corgi recommended size, and it fits length wise but not height wise. It bulges in front so he looks like a bright yellow daisy. Highly offense to his male pride! Big dog's coat is excellent it is bright red with velcro around the belly and chest. Very easy to put on him. I bought it on ebay and its exactly what little dog needs so perhaps I'll look for another one. My wonderful mom made them very cute coats but when I tried to fit them to the dogs myself I messed it all up. I need my mama! :) I like them to have coats when its pouring down rain all day long. They are still potty training puppies and need to go out frequently. I dont like them to be soaking wet because they don't enjoy it and I dont either. Wet dog is not an exsuisite perfume to me! :)

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas!

My very favortite time of the year! My area does not get much snow, usually 1-4 light snows a year that melt by the next day or so. Last year we have 3 pretty good snowfalls. My husband called be before I was awake to inform me it was snowing. Uh no its not dear I'm looking out the window. About 3 minutes later we had snow! This is the first snow for our dogs, both are under a year and they did not seem too thrilled!

So what does a homemaker with minimal heat sources do on a snowy day? She fires up the oven and gets baking!

These cookies are from a recipe in the Tightwad Gazette that uses boxed cake mix. They turn out delicious and oh so easy.

This is a chocolate chip cookie cake that I'm making as a thank you for a friend. I like to use applesauce for half the fat in chocolate chip cookies. They turn out very moist and you can't taste the applesauce. I'm going to try my hand at frosting it but Its not one of my skills so there probably wont be a picture of that. Hope everyone has a good day!

Care for a dumpster dive?

I've never dumpster dived, in till tonight. I read about it in The Frugal Gazette. I've heard other people talk about doing it. But I've never taken the plunge myself before tonight. We've grabbed free wood from a couple of local spots but thats as close as we have gotten. We live across from an auto parts store that appears to be re-modeling. They have a huge dumpster in the parking lot full of items. I suggested dh and myself go peek for goodies about 8:00 at night long after the store has closed, and later then most people would be walking on our street. We carted home a massive piece of pegboard, 2 smaller peg board pieces, a huge roll of plastic, and a weird display piece. I am quite excited about the peg board because its something we intended to buy to organize our shed. The display case has a few options it could be turned into a small shelving unit by inserting wood between the heavy wire rows, then mounted onto the wall to hold small tools. It could be hung from the ceiling so that items could be hooked onto it. Its a strange little piece but I think it will be useful. My hubby did the dumpster (really big dumpster) climbing as I am clumsy and not nearly as strong as he is. So when we went back to our house I got out the binoculars to make sure there wasn't something I could see potential in that he couldn't. There was not. lol We both felt a little strange dumpster diving but we did it somewhere we are familiar and because we stepped outside our comfort zone we scored some freebies!

Shopping and money challenge

Money challenge is completely out the window! But I found great buys on fabric storage boxes clearanced at lowes. At Home Depot i bought a clearance tissue cover (ceramic with pretty trim) for .01 cent. That's right folks! Very cool. My salaried dh told me he's making more then .01 cent while talking to me lol. He bought some new things, a palm sander at the pawn shop for $10. Maybe he can finish my $1 coffee table now! He also bought a drain snake, and is hopefully fixing the washer as we speak. Our brand new set is too powerful for the drain and has leaked water everywhere since we bought it. We've been draining the washer into the sink with a hose and that's no fun. It can be a huge mess as well!

I this post at thrifty fun, and it intrigued me. I love the idea of solar power. We bought a set of solar lights for outside, and they are nice but do not produce enough light to be used inside. We looked at bigger lamps at Lowes but they were pretty expensive $44 for two. They have a solar panel that powers regular appliances for $24 but they were out. We're going to look online. He likes the big power cell better because he thinks it will generate more power then the small cells that are on top of the lamps i liked. The lamps with a separate solar cell looked way too outdoorsy to go inside! Were going to look around more, and maybe wait for a sale before we purchase anything.

Money challenge

Well the $100 bill was used monday. I paid for walgreens and dinner with my original cash but after that we went to the grocery store. We spent $44 mainly on things for dh to snack on at work. He is working very long hard hours (from 7 am till 8pm without a day off for 3 weeks streight)and I wanted to get him some candy bars, power bars, and stuff to make him trail mix. I have enough of everything (except oatmeal) to make 3 more batches of trail mix. Homemade trail mix is nice because its cheaper and its customized to him. We used mixed nuts he likes, yogurt covered raisins, homemade granola and dark M&Ms. Yuck! lol

I made the granola using 'quick' oats instead of old fashioned oats and I like it much more then old fashioned oats. The bits of oats formed small clusters instead of each oat being sepperate. Its more like store bought granola and it makes it easier to snack on.

We spent another $20 on dinner tonight. You can see dinners out can be a big budget buster for us, we like to eat out when life gets crazy. Its healthier, cheaper and generally more relaxing to eat at home. However its something we struggle with and sometimes do better then other times.

Walgreens deals

On monday dh and I went to Walgreens to pick up some goodies. I was finally able to get caught up on my coupons. We spent $14.79 and we saved $30.12! Without using rebates! I dont have a problem with rebates, we all know I am a fan but its nice to walk out with $44.91 worth of stuff for $14.79. I can not list the originally prices, and what the coupon deals were because the receipt got wet and lost a lot of ink but I'll figure it out best i can.

We bought 2 excedrins on sale buy 1 get 1 for .01 cent. (I used two coupons)
2 Finesse shampoos 2 for $5 (I know I used a $1 off coupon)
Can of alpo dog food (free after coupon)
Can of mighty dog food (free after coupon)
2 bottles of Arm and Hammer laundy detergent 2 for $5.99
2 bottles dove conditioner on sale for 2/$5.99 ( I used buy one get on coupon)

If i remember correctly the excedrin made us .70 after sale + coupons. My dh just loves to hear the price we paid vs the amount everything was originally. But his very favorite is getting paid to take a product home.

My $10 gift

I put together a present for each of the ladies that live on our block. They both like to bake. I bought 3 nice spatulas on sale buy 2 get 1 free. It was $6 for 3 so $2 apiece. The jello molds were $3. The napkin ring was clearance marked down to $1. The basket, kitchen towel, oven mit, and glass jar came from the dollar store. That brings the current price of the gift to $10. I intend to fill the jar with a baking mix. I'm not going to count the cost of that as it comes from my kitchen supplies. I would like to add a cute Christmas napkin but if I can not find one for $1 or under I will leave it out. I'm having some problems finding a cute napkin that's not $2-$3. If I don't find a napkin I will probably remove the napkin holder from the gift, it seems a little silly by itself! I could have spent less and not bought the jello molds. However as someone who likes to cook I get such a kick (and a lot of use out of) mine that I wanted to include them.

Envy

Yesterday dh and I drove to a small semi rural area about 20 minutes from us to pick up freecycle stuff. That area is pretty much our dream area, close enough to stores to be convenient, about 30 minutes from the area's major shopping center, and probably 20 minutes to base. Its a quite area with pretty homes, old trees and plenty of land. Exactly what we want. Well i think dh would really like to be on a lake as well, but the area is very close. The whole way to the freecycle house we were quiet or occasionally sighing over a big beautiful house with tons of old growth land. It made me start to compare my little inlet house to those big beautiful houses. And my little house was coming up short. In till I remembered one simple, solid fact. I truly love my little house.

Sure it doesn't have several acres of land, or a massive house with 5 huge bedrooms, and 3 grand bathrooms. Yes we do live in the city, behind an auto parts store with not a not so nice neighborhood behind us. And yes the city has been annoying the snot out of me for the past few months, beeping and tearing things down. But i LOVE this house.

So what if our yard is not huge? I've spent the past 5 years without a yard. Theres plenty of room for a rousing game of puppy football, room for flowers to grow, and possibly a small garden. Right now its overrun with growth but that's one of the reasons we bought this house for a good price. And I really enjoy chopping away at blackberry bushes, and annoying branches. I spent 4 months taking big dog outside while he was a little puppy in a second floor apartment. I am very grateful for my fence and yard!

Yes 2 of our 3 bedrooms are small. But ours is huge! :) To me anyway. The downstairs bedroom will make a perfect nursery and fits a twin bed with room for a dresser and desk. The upstairs bedrooms is a bit smaller but it still fits a huge rabbit cage, daybed, small entertainment center and a cabinet. All 3 of our bedrooms have a view of Puget Sound.

The upstairs bathroom is tiny but that's ok all we needed was two sinks and two toilets. I've seen shows with people that have 12 kids and one toilet. No thank you! The downstairs bathroom is roomy, but the tub is small. That is just fine. I have remodel plans thought out! :)

I really, really love my kitchen. I plan to replace the linoleum at some point, get a better fridge, maybe remodel the counters but all that is stuff that can wait. I love it just the way it is.

Our living room is wonderful, i wish the table did not have to go into it but it doesn't cause a problem. Its off to one side, the living and dining areas are clearly separated. The living room has some of our best water views, and plenty of space.

In addition to that we have a small laundry/mud room with a stacked washer dryer combo, with room leftover to fit the dog's crates. Big dog's crate is so large he can curl into the back and have room leftover for another 65 pound dog. Upstairs we have a computer nook with a pretty wide hallway we're currently storing things in.

Our street is great, its quiet and currently mainly unoccipied. We have two sweet old ladies for neighbors, and occasionally our next door neighboor comes home. Our street was made into a cul-du-sac and all the power and phone lines are going under ground. The city is improving lots next to us. And the not so nice neighboor hood is behind us they dont bug us down here.

I have so much to be thankful for, and that's just my house! It doesn't include my husband, family, friends, and animals. Next time I drive past those big houses with lots of land I'll think about my 'little' house and smile. Because I love it here.

Sunday money update

Ok so we fell off the cash band wagon. We stopped at Home Depot to kill some time ( waiting to pick up freecycle stuff) and I grabbed the thanksgiving weekend ad. They had a set with an 18v cordless drill, cordless saw, sweet flashlight, and radio for $60. Remember the $7 used drill? It gets the job done but very, very slowly. So we splurged on the Ryobi 18v drill, with cool extras. I'm glad we waited to purchase the drill because now hubby has a drill he really likes at a great price. We did put it on the credit card because we were not carrying enough cash and we were 20 minutes from home.

We also bought a power strip and bottle of nail polish from Rite Aid, free after rebate. We paid cash for those! :)

$60ish dollars on credit card
$7 rite aid free after rebate

Today's money review

Sold
Dvds for cash $48
Book for trade credit $22

Bought
4 books and new hat at used book store $8 cash after trade credit
Veggies, animal food, and tp at Walmart $18 cash
Mcdonalds $8 (bad frugal people!)
2 packs sandwich rolls, english muffins, 2 loafs of expensive wheat bread, 1 loaf cheap white bread at bakery thrift store $6

Spent $40
Made $48 cash so $8 cash left over.
We still have not cashed the $30 check.

Way, way WAY over budget

We are so far over budget we can't see the budget anymore. Most of our purchases were good needed items, good deals on Christmas presents, big dog's surgery. However its time to buckle down! My goal is to get to the first spending only cash. We have $130 in our cash bucket. I have a $30 check in my wallet. Dh has some cash but I don't know how much. We plan to sell some of the dvds and books we no longer watch or read. I would really like to not spend $100 from the cash bucket. That leaves $60. Which should be possible if we dont need gas ($50 last fill up) right now we have a half a tank. I need a little big of veggies, but no meat. We probably have 10 pounds of turkey. The animals have plenty of dry food they only need wet food.

What will we be doing? Projects of course! Earlier I mentioned a few things I would like to get done. On top of that there is a $1 coffee table we're refurnishing, a garbage disposal to install, washer maintenance, weather stripping, cleaning, sewing, patching, and baking. Not to mention taking dogs for walks and to the park. We can also frisbee golf, and geocache. Oh and the cat stand we started but have not worked on. Sheesh we have so much to do maybe we should very a strict budget more often!

Home!

I don't know about you guys but I'm beat. This was our 2nd thanksgiving in two weeks (both with my family and out of town relatives) that's a lot of cooking! Its a 2-3 hour round trip for us to go to my families home and it can get pretty stressful with 2 dogs in a 4 door car. I've been up much earlier then normal this week, I'm a night owl and its starting to get to me. Big dog is still wearing a cone (his pain pill is supposed to be 'mild sedative' HA!) and that comes with its own problems. I'm totally worn out today! It seems like dh and I are always busy but are not accomplishing much. We still have not been able to finish painting the trim on our home! I'm still trying to finish my candy wreath, and I'm weeks behind on my coupons. I think we've been busy with family things (on both sides) and its time to take a break. Its time to back down on outside activities and increase home time.

Vet

Today I took big dog to the vet.Total $220. It was not frugal but he's worth it. We went to a new vet (recommended by a friend) that charged $50 less for surgery then our favorite vet. We had him vaccinated while he was there for surgery, saving $30 visit fee. I opted not to have blood work done saving $40. Its recommended for dogs over 7 years old, big dog is 10 months old. I chose not to have microchip done at this time, which would have cost another $40. We will have it done at the base vet. We saved $120 not including the micro chip.

The new vet makes 3 different vets we use. One is far and expensive but the people are wonderful. They really care about animals. When our sweet kitty was injured we took her there. They did the whole exam with her in her crate (opens on 3 sides) I've never had a vet do that they always remove the cat. We use the wonderful vet for concerns, and emergencies. The other vet is right down the street but the doctor is a jerk. We use them only for routine procedures. I would really love it if the new vet was wonderful and inexpensive! That way we could consolidate to one vet! So far we've had a good experience. They seemed nice but I did not get to meet the doctor. They clipped his nails, and sent him home in a rope leash so we did not have to bug him to get his collar on.

I was just a small girl when my family's cocker spaniel was neutered (he passed away a few years ago at 16) and I'm used to getting cats fixed. But big dog seems to be having a tough time. His big plastic collar is always banging into things and getting stuck which freaks him out. When we take him outside he runs to the edge of the property towards the road, and when we turn him around he runs back to the house steps. He wants to be constantly with someone so much so that we bent the 'no dogs on the couch' rule, but he still jumps down and bangs around till we lead him back to the couch. For awhile big dog wouldn't eat from hubby's hand he wanted me to feed him his kibble. Dh came up with squirting water into his mouth using a straw. We could tell his mouth was dry but he could not drink. The straw worked wonderfully. Little dog is having a cow! He was at a total loss with out his buddy earlier and now he still cant be with him but he can see him getting all this love. Little dog is so jealous he just cant stand to see big dog on the couch. My house is crazy but it is always an adventure.

Weather proof

This is the first year my dh and I have weather proofed. Before we lived in apartments, the last one was heated so strongly from the apartment below that we never turned on our heater. We like to be a little chilly but not as chilly as our little house gets without heat. I'm going to share with you the methods that we're using.

We have caulked the underside of our old windows, but have not had time to go all the way around. Dh and I went outside at night and we could see big cracks of light leaking out from under the windows, so we made sure to get those done. Hopefully this weekend we can do the whole window. I purchased a window insulation kit and dh has done 3 windows so far, the ones with the biggest drafts. I would chose to do all of our rear having windows (we live in front of a sharp retention wall nobody but us sees the back of our home) but the cats have other plans. Already I've had to pull a few away from the insulated window in our bedroom. However we did the ones with big gaps and intend to do a few more.

Last night I hot glued draft blockers for the doors. I would have prefered to sew them but I can not get the hang of putting in my bobbin and dh hasn't remembered to do it for me. Those made a HUGE difference. The dog's crates are in the laundry room and it gets pretty chilly in there. They have blankets, but for some reason big dog bunches his to the front of his huge kennel and curls up in the back. With the door blocker it was much warmer. We don't keep the dogs in there all night, they sleep with us but dh puts them up in the morning so I can catch some extra sleep. I didn't like them being chilly even if only for awhile. I originally made door blockers out of the legs of an old pair of jeans but they were not long enough. So i put them behind our couch on the window ledge where the cats sit. Even there I notice its not as drafty.

Today we purchased weather stripping buy 1 get 1 free. The ad ended Sunday but they still had a sign up, and the lady was quite surly about honoring it. I was angered to say the least, its illegal to not honor a signed price. Anyway they did and we got 4 rolls of stripping for the price of two. I believe hubby intends to use it on the windows.

We're heating our home with built in electric heaters in the bedrooms, an oil heater in the living room, and a space heater upstairs. We don't run them all the time, only when needed. Our furnace needs a pipe installed so that the heat does not dry out the chimney and create a fire hazard. Therefore we have not used it, we did check to make sure it worked before we bought it but not since. Hubby had a company give us an estimate, $325. That is cheaper then I thought, and affordable. But before we go ahead and have it done dh is going to research how much it would be to do it himself and how difficult it would be. If its cheap and easy he will do it, if not its time to hire a professional.

Tomorrow big dog goes in for shots and a neuter. Its going to be quite expensive (cats are so much cheaper! I'm in sticker shock) but its for the best. He's getting a little to interested in things he shouldn't be, and hopefully he will calm down a bit. The furnace, and big dog's shots and neuter were adoption road blocks I'll be happy to see removed!

FYI

My egg mc muffin experiment did not turn out well. I couldn't get the can opener to slice up the bottom of the cat food can so i made a scrambled sort of an egg patty. Fresh it was not as tasty as the mcdonalds version. I froze an extra one to see if it would turn out yummy from the freezer. Dh reported a big 'no' on that one. Oh well, its something I have been wanting to try for awhile. i will stick to breakfast burritos they come out delicious after being frozen.

Sorry

I have not been around lately! I have had a few out of town guests visit my family. In addition we had one slighly injured kitty who needed vet attention, a sick puppy and a million projects to complete. I'm happy to say dh and i are doing very well with our christmas shopping. Most people are nearly finished, or have ideas to finish them off.

My darling husband accidently created additional work for another division and as i peace offering told them i would make them cookies. While i'm proud that my cookies are a sufficient peace offering, i find it amusing that while making up for creating extra work for them he makes extra work for me. :) I was excited to find a brand new cookie press at the thrift store for $6. However i have no clue as to what kind of cookies to make. The cookie press suggested 'spritz' cookies and i dont think I have ever had any.

On veterans day we found a lot of great treasures everything was half off at the thrift store. I bought several sweaters for $3 each, jeans for $4, a brand new christmas table runner for $1, a christmas wall hanging for $1, a new christmas candle lamp for $3 and a 25 cent christmas place mat. If i remember i will take a few photos to post.

My days are not likely to calm down, i have a ton of presents to wrap, things to bake, and projects to complete. My grandmother lives with my parents and has very few (read none) wants, and no needs. She is very hard to shop for! For one of her gifts i intend to decoupage a tissue cover, and buy her a bunch of tissues. An odd gift, i know. However she uses a ton of tissues but mainly uses toliet paper because its cheaper. Tissues are something she could really use and appreciate. I also intend to make her heating pad 'mittens' but shapped like squares, a neck heating pad, and a big one for her back or bed. I already have diabetic socks, diabetic cream ($19, free after rebate)cute socks, a fuzzy hat, and an adorable stuffed frog couple. I dont know if i have time to sleep! :)

Target goodie bins

I forgot to mention when we went to target I found good things in their discount bin. They had beautiful christmas cards that you insert a photo into. $1 for 8. Not bad! I bought 2 packs. I also found a dvd of underwater scenes about a half hour's worth for $1. I bought one for me and my fish loving mom. I'm very excited about the dvd! Frequently when I go into a store that sells TVs they are playing a fish dvd that i've wanted. I bought the dogs a santa toy that plays 'jingle bells' that they tore to bits in 5 minutes! That was $2.50. I purchased a beautiful calender of the Greek Isles for $1. A girl can day dream.

Christmas Presents

I found a beautiful set of earrings for my mom at Macy's half price. Normally $38 on sale for $19. They are gorgeous! I hope she loves them! I bought big half hoop earrings for myself $4.12. They were normally $33! Woo! I cant think of anyone that would like them besides me, so gosh I have to keep them myself. Bummer. I have my good friend Naomi thinking about Christmas shopping too I'm very thrilled. It is good for me as well because I help her shop and she gets a little crazy at the last minute! I found a singing bear at Jcpenny's that I think my mom will love. I'll have to write what it says later, I left it in my friend's car. Get your christmas shopping done the mall is already crowded!

Goodies

When Dh and I were at fred meyer we picked up some goodies for ourself. Dh picked up a poker mat normally $50 on clearance for $11 for $5.50. I got 3 jello molds (about 3.50 each) and we bought bug spray and sun lotion in one. I think it was around $2.50. Dh is thinking about buying another poker mat for his friend for christmas. We're both very pleased with our new goodies and it didn't cost us much!

Christmas presents

Goodness where did the time go? Its november!!! Christmas is almost here!! I have been picking up presents as I see them all year but I'm not nearly as done as I would have liked to be. Today we went to Fred Meyer and found a BUNCH of great gifts! I think my mother in law is almost done.


4 strawberry silicone molds, 4 cherry silicone molds, photo album, pink fleece blanket, magnetic bingo game, deluxe kitchen organizer set. Everything was on sale. The original cost of everything excluding the kitchen organizer was $44. It was on clearance for $35.18. Pretty good price. But clearance was 50% off so we paid $17.59. How awesome is that?? The kitchen organizer was on sale for $5 so total for mother in law's gift is $22.59. And I think its a pretty nice gift.



This is what we bought for father in law. The blanket was $3.35. The book was t expensive at $14.99 but i think he will like it. We have a shirt picked out for him, we purchased several movies and a belt buckle.




This is for sister in law she loves wine! Originally $24 on clearance for $18 and we paid $9.

Awesome deals!!!

Cooking

ve been having Egg Mc Muffin cravings lately. They are not very expensive but its cheaper and easier (with one car) to simply make them at home. I'm just not sure how to cook the egg so it makes a patty. I'm thinking maybe a cat food can with the bottom and top removed and well cleaned. Should make the perfect size patty if i can do it properly.

Today when my parents came to pick up my grandma I was taking rolls out of the oven. My mom was quick to claim one so I'm thinking I might make those for thanksgiving. I'll make a loaf of bread, rolls and some kind of pie. I hate pumpkin. My grandma can taste lemon (not much else) so perhaps a lemon meringue? Or i could make a decadent chocolate pie. I love cooking. I wish my parents had been able to stay for dinner, i made far too much beef stew and now I need a way to use the left overs. Tomorrow I am making chicken soup (dh likes thick soup, so its already pretty thick) into a casserole by adding sour cream and rice. The next night honey wont be home for dinner, and the night after I'm making pizza. I've put it off for a few days and I'm afraid hes going to riot dh loves pizza! Maybe i could make the beef stew into some kind of beef pot pie? That could be yummy. I don't want to freeze the leftovers because they wont get eaten. In fact leftovers in the fridge probably wont be eaten in less made into something new.

Budget

Ever since we bought our home our budget has been much tighter then what we are used to. After the mortgage is paid from the first paycheck we have only $450 to make it two weeks. Normally I budget $500-$600 for two weeks. We try and spend an extra $50 on our mortgage but sometimes it just doesn't work out. We pay all our bills in the second paycheck but some how one was missed so that's another $60. Instead of pulling from our savings we are trying to make do with our cash. Its not going to work very well, we're already down to $70. Bummer! However we have some cash, and $100 in another checking account. So we might be able to squeak by without taking from savings. The key to doing this is to not let it depress you. We look at it as more of a game then anything, and because its a choice (we have money in savings) we don't feel insecure about our lack of cash. I'm actually glad we're trying to spend far less as I feel like our spending has gotten out of control. A lot of it is spent on meals out because we run errands in the evenings (right now we're down to just one car and dh gets it during the day) so we grab a quick bite to eat. If we spend $15 twice a week that's $120 a month. Dinner 3 times a week at $15 is $180 a month. That adds up!

Halloween Candy

We did not get a single trick or treater!Not one! Our street is under construction so I am not surprised. We have a big mixing bowl full of candy left so why did I buy another $16 worth of candy? To make candy wreaths from living on a dime with my grandmother. We buy $8 worth of 75% off candy from walgreens. I think 6 bags of that was .50 a bag carmels for baking and candies. They did not have a lot of wrapped candy that didn't look halloweeny so we went to Rite Aid. Their candy was 50% off and we bought another $8 worth there. I'm going to use a coat hanger for the metal part. We also purchased ribbon marked down 70% off for .90 a roll. Its thick ribbon, 2 are green, and one is a deep red that I think will pass for Christmas ribbon. My grandma will be staying for 3 days, and she is not in the best health but mom and i think she will be able to do the wreath. I think it will be fun for both of us.

My rite aid rebates

I like to know how much money I save. It helps motivate me to save more! So I'm going to post my rite aid rebate totals because every month an old month's totals drop off.
May was $9
Looks like for shampoo and sunscreen.

June was $5.98
Looks like conditioner and some make-up.

July I missed! Man! I'm not to surprised that's the month we bought our house, moved, its our anniversary month, and my husband's birthday. Plus it took 3 weeks to get our Internet set up.

August was $25.75
looks like 3 conditioners, 1 manly body wash, pens, light bulbs, chewable antacid, toothbrush, mouth wash, air freshener, and duct tape.

September was $18.95
Looks like tooth paste, imodium, mylanta, body heat patch, and calcium pills.

October was $29.22
Looks like toothpaste, stoppain, Zucol, pepcid ac, vicks, cold eeze, lypsyl, and a toothbrush.

November I'm up to $48.52!

I'm not going to list all that stuff because I posted a picture.
All of that adds up to $132.47! My husband and I are thinking about doing something specific with the money from rebates. It tends to get absorbed into our normal spending money but instead I would like to put it into a savings account for something specific. We're not sure what just yet. However we are looking into adoption so we could save for that. We were thinking foster care but we are not sure we could deal with it. Its a wonderful thing to do and I would really love to but my heart is very soft and I'm not sure I can. My Dad is just positive I can't! :) He does not want to see his daughter hurt. But he would support us if we did go through with it. Adoption is very expensive!

Brand Loyal

I confess I used to be brand loyal. Even after i took a marketing class and learned all about brand loyalty I still had my preferences. Crest toothpaste, ragu pasta sauce, Jiff peanut butter, Caress body wash. It did not matter to me if there was a comparable brand on sale for much less, that's what I liked and that's what I bought. Wow did that cost me money! I know that when someone is frugal sometimes they have to make more of an effort to save money. For instance making granola is more work then picking up premade granola at the store. Bargain shopping, coupon clipping it all takes work. But sometimes you can save money without any extra effort. Sometimes all it takes is giving up your brand loyalty in favor of store brands or a sale brand. Maybe sometimes the brand you try is not as good as your favorite. There are a few brands of pasta sauce that I don't like but when they are extremely cheap I'll pick them up anyway. I either use them in dishes were their flavor is disguised or add a bit of spices and sugar till it tastes better. Sometimes you just have to get used to the new product. I hated any toothpaste but crest. However when money became tight and a different brand was far cheaper i couldn't justify the extra expense. Now I've adjusted and so long as the flavor is mint I'm fine. If by chance we buy something we really cant stand (like Nori, not my thing) we give it away and try a different brand. Even if you have some initial failures eventually giving up brand loyalty will be a great benefit to you.

Rite aid rebates

My goodness they had good stuff today! We were there WAY early, about 9:30 am so we were able to get everything we wanted. That never seems to happen! The downside is they dont have the ad up yet so you have to be very careful (double checking the ad) to get the exact product in the exact size. But I think its worth it to get all this great stuff for free. The big purple bottle is a fancy shampoo that i'm excited to try. Dh is excited about his brut cologne, and adidas body wash. The fancy shampoo and cologne would make excellent christmas presents. The body wash would be good too especially if given with a loofa. Or new towel set. The small blue box off to the left is ginger gum, cures motion sickness. I get motion sickness often in the car. I hope it tastes alright. My last batch of dramamine was chewable and had the most horrible flavor, it made me shudder! Anyways I estimate our rebate to be about $55.

Guests

I've spent my entire day cleaning! Whoo! I'm a housewife but even so I don't normally clean till 8 pm. And I still have 5 loads of laundry to fold. I dump it all on my bed and fold it in the evening while watching TV on DVD. I get to sit down! Having people over makes me 'physco' (according to my husband) I go into super cleaning mode. The upside is my home gets sparkling clean, even if I'm very tired. My goal is to keep my house clean enough to get it guest ready in an hour or two. However the 8 animals and husband that I live with do not prize cleanliness as highly as I do. I wonder if everyone has this reaction to guests? I know my mother does. She has a insanely clean house and I never see her cleaning it. But when she has company coming she goes on the cleaning rampage too. Maybe physco is genetic?

Goals

Today my husband and I sat down, with no distractions and listed our financial goals. To my suprise the ones he listed were different then mine. But after listing both sets of goals, we came up with a set that fit both of us. I think goals are important, and its very important to have a common set in a marriage. If he's saving for vacation, and I'm saving to pay off debt were going to have problems! My main goal is to get out of debt. I dint like debt! We have a minimal amount, a small car loan, 1 credit card, and a mortgage. But i want to be free of everything including the mortgage. My husband really wants/needs a vacation. Last summer we spent a week in Las Vegas, and last spring we went down to Oregon for a few days. But we haven't been anywhere since. We were saving for our house. That was a MAJOR goal! So we've agreed to save for a vacation in a year. That's a long time away! But in April my family is having a huge reunion, that's sort of mandatory for us. My grandma paid for dues and other expenses related to the reunion but it still leaves us hotel (we could stay with my family but for sanity's sake were going to get a hotel) car rental, airfare, and dog kennel. I doubt we'll need to spend much on meals my grandma's home has a kitchen and if we go out to eat much we'll probably be treated. But we do need spending money, gas money, and fun money to go. Which means we will have that to save for that as well. Its kind of a mandatory vacation right? :) Except my mama already told us she's putting us to work! We've been remiss on getting big dog his shots, and getting him fixed. We agreed to accomplish that next check. We also agreed to get our furnace checked and the metal flute we need installed. Paying with savings if necessary. That's been our biggest block to do foster care. Once that is taken care of we can move forward! I am happy, I think my husband is happy and we should be back on track financially in no time.

Cellphone

A few days ago my husband did a load of laundry, including a pair of my pants. Pants that had my cell phone in the pocket. A cell phone that went through the washer. A cell phone that after a few days drying has water spots all over the screen, and has a delete button that doesn't work. This is a problem for me, I text my husband all day long. Not to mention that I've dropped it a million times in the past two years. Its the best way to communicate. Am i going to replace my horribly deformed phone? Nope! Our contract is up in January and we plan to go with a new cell phone carrier so I don't see the point in replacing it now. Frugality is not always about buying things as cheaply as possible. Sometimes it means not fixing things, instead dealing with them as they are. Even if it means your friends and family are wondering why your text messages look like a 5 year old wrote them!

Bad bad Bad!

Some days frugality goes right out the window. Tonight we had dinner at Red Robin $44. Yum. After that we bought Transformers, and Meet the Robinsons $30. And I splurged on cheese curds. $7 for 10 ounces. That's a high price for cheese! At least we used $15 in best buy rewards on the movies. You know what? It was fun. I had fun at dinner, i *love* Meet the Robinsons and I'm thoroughly enjoying the squeaky cheese.

Remember my $12 shipping on a $3 book? That was a Little Prairie cookbook, its awesome. My sister in law and I are going to try to make cheese curds our self on Sunday, from a Little House recipe. How cool is that?? I've just got to find rennet now. The actual cheese making process would require special equipment, but if we stop at curds we should be just fine. When it comes to buying equipment anyways! First thing my sister in law said was I'm NOT trying them first! lol.

Fire

Yesterday we dropped off our box to the family who lost everything in the fire. Today I got an email letting us know that withing 12 hours of the first email there was a full house full of furniture listed, and this morning everything was set up. How awesome is that? In fact so much stuff was given that the family has few wants. I think its wonderful how every one pulled together to help one of our own. When we were leaving the house (they were able to get base housing, very lucky) a stranger wanted to know if they were the family who lost everything. When I said yes she said she would bring over items for them as well. When we left stuff there was 3 boxes of things on the porch waiting for them to get home. I saw more when I was jamming the gift card under the door. I might be trusting and it is base housing, but even I don't think its a great plan to leave a $150 gift card sitting on the porch. I love how my mom emailed me right away to tell me she had transfered money for the family. And my sister in law offered a bed just a few hours later. I am very sorry for the family, don't get me wrong. But I'm thrilled to see how everyone comes together and helps.

Animal sticker

Animal rescue sticker

The Aspca will send you a free rescue sticker, letting firemen know theres animals in the house in case you are not home. I ordered one and it makes me feel a lot better!

Family lost home in fire

A family in my husband's old command lost everything in a fire. No one was hurt, but the house burned to the ground. I don't know if they lived on base or in town. I don't even know who it is. But I do no that a man, woman, infant, and toddler lost everything yesterday. My heart aches for them. When I look around my home at the things we've acquired through the years, my heart aches more. Its not the tv I would miss. Or the couch and love seat. Its the plaque that was my beloved grandfather's. "may your horse never stumble your cinch never break, your belly never grumble and your heart never ache." Its my grandma's bronco blanket, the pictures, the plaque my mom made me promise to hang above my bed no matter how old i get 'for this child i prayed and the lord has granted me,my petition which I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the lord; as long as he lives, he is lent to the lord." Its the pretty silver ring my dad picked out all himself. I know its wrong to treasure things, and my real fear when it comes to fire is not being able to get all the animals out on time. I'm so glad the family wasn't hurt, but i feel for their loss just the same.

So I've put together toothbrushes, tooth paste, deodorant, conditioner, soap, facial cleaner, baby powder, antacid, excedrin and a child's tooth brush. Where did I get all this? In my cupboard. I'm able to give these things without any extra cost due to couponing/refunding. What a blessing! I'm also adding several baby outfits from my foster care stock pile. None of them cost more then $2.50. I'll be able to replace them before we're able to foster. I included a baby rattle that's in its package (normally $4.99) that I got for free. A few other baby toys I've bought. A diaper bag, a new fuzzy scarf. Paper plates, bowls, cups that we bought for our move but don't normally use. Baby socks, and a cookbook. I'm going to add a blanket, and some mugs. I'm also going to give a baby walker that was given to us, i just cleaned it. All of these things were items already in the house. It didn't cost me any extra money to put together a box, just items i already had. Some of the baby outfits give me a slight pang but their need it far greater then ours, and i really enjoy buying baby clothes! I'd like to get a walmart gift card as well, because super walmart carries everything from groceries to lamps. That will allow them to fill in around the edges and buy things that matches their taste, to start over again. How sad.

Walgreens spa deal

I learned about the Walgreens spa deal at Money Saving Mom I'm SO glad I did! Even if the spa rewards does not work out, 4 cough medicines for $4 is awesome! I enjoy reading frugal blogs for encouragement, inspiration, and ideas. Its wonderful to have them point out a great deal. Even my husband is excited, he wants a massage! :) Thanks for the heads up Crystal!

We bought another car!

Well a van. A full size 1984 van. At auction for $300. We needed a bigger car to haul things (theres just so much one can throw on top of a 4 door car) including our big zoo. 5 cats, 2 dogs, 1 rabbit, and two humans do not fit into a single car! It was disgustingly dirty inside, dh spent a few hours pressure washing the inside. We bought car seats covers to make it look better. Now we need to re-upholster the roof, and the floor needs carpet. I'm thinking remnants. It needs some slight work dh is very excited about it. I like that the car is a beater, no worry about dents or deprecation.

Vehicles are cheap at auction! Lots of stuff is cheap at auction, it was exciting. Its an all day affair here, we went at 9 am and didn't leave till 1. Way before they were done! Next time I want to take a book, lunch, and yummy snacks to look forward to.
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No power outage yet!

People all over the area are losing power but we're still fine. The Internet was down for a few hours, but its back now! I'm glad we haven't lost ours, and so far don't seem to have any damage. Yay!

Power Outage

Power outages are very common where I live. They happen often because we get lots of rain so our tree roots don't go very deep. When the wind gusts, trees blow over. Especially when its been raining for a few days like recently. And wouldn't you know we have high winds predicted? I've been through this many times and I do a few simple things to prepare. Our home phone is not a VOIP service, just a plain old phone. That way if the power goes out we still have working phone service. We have plenty of candles, lighters, and matches. If we still had a fireplace I would lay in a supply of wood, however we don't have one. We do have lots of small propane bottles and a propane heater, as well as a propane stove. I've always had a small propane BBQ when living in apartments but now we have a big one as well. We have plenty of food in the house. Several convince foods, like 'chicken helper' that would make a full meal in a single skillet. The animals are stocked up on food. We have tons of blankets. On the day of i lay out candles and a lighter in whatever room I'm in, especially if its night. I generally carry a flashlight in my pocket. If I know in advance that bad weather is planned i plug in my cell phone and start heating up the house. (we keep it pretty cold and usually just use the heater in whatever room we're in) If i didn't have warning i Coral all the animals in a single room with me, it heats up fast! Especially with candles burning! A word of warning, be careful with candles if you have curious cats. If I'm out anyway i fill up the gas tank. Usually we don't have the power out for long, maybe a day but last year my city lost power for several days. However it wasn't the whole city, parts of it still had power. I was lucky enough to have it down for a single day. But I like to be prepared just in case! And if it gets too bad my parents live a few hours away and usually don't experience the exact same weather. But who wants to stuff 5 cats, 2 dogs, and a rabbit in a 4 door car??? Not me!

Apple Pie

Apple pie sounded yummy to me today, so I decided to make one. I don't have any apples (over due for a grocery trip) but I have a can of apple pie filling. I've never tried canned filling before, I always make it myself. I looked over a crust recipe to make sure i had all the ingredients. I don't have shortening, so i substituted butter. Well half way through the recipe it said 'add an egg' egg? what egg? I'm out of eggs! I do have soy flour which can be substituted for an egg but when we tried it in a cookie recipe it tasted gross. Don't want to try that again. Its only one egg I'll just add more water. Then it says add a tbs of vinegar. Only I'm out of that too. Ok more water. Now i cant find a pie pan! Ok simply substitute a cake pan. The recipe I used is from Living On a Dime and it says it makes 3 crusts. Not when you use a cake pan! :) I finally get the whole bottom of the cake pan covered, then I check the filling can. Oh no. It says to use 2 cans! And I'm using a 3 crust cake pan. Great. Well I've com this far right? So I dumped the filling into the pie/cake, and covered the top with the last of my 3 crust recipe. lol. Its cooling down now, smells good but who knows with an egg less, vinegar less, 3 crust, 1 can filling, cake pan, pie?

Why not simply run to the store like a normal person? Because my dh has the car. We're a two car family but one has been broken (and sitting on base!) for 4 months. I cant get up at 4:45 am to take him to work because I frequently can't fall asleep till after midnight, no matter how early i go to bed. Why not simply stop making the pie? That wouldn't be any fun would it? Sometimes my little experiments come out just fine and how would you know if a recipe works or doesnt with a missing ingredient if you dont try? Besides it gives my husband something to laugh at and tease me about later. :)

Ebay

I dont buy a lot of things from ebay because I find with patience I can find a better deal. When I do purchase an item I make sure it check shipping. If shipping is too high I always pass. Recently I bought a hard to find book on ebay. The seller didn't have shipping listed but i figured even if its on the high side (around 5 dollars) it would still be worth it. Turns out I should have paid more attention to where the book was comming from. Canada. The shipping on a $2.99 book is $12! Youch! The big shipping charge wont cause us financial problems or anything but its definatly irritating! My dh laughed when I told him, he knows how mad i get when I pay more for something then I have to. I like my money in my pocket not someone else's thanks!

Awesome Husband

My wonderful husband bought me a present, for no reason. Thats very very unusual. I'm always bringing home stuff for him but he hardly ever shops without me, and if he does bringing home a present doesn't occur to him. But he ordered me the coolest present online. Its a Bronco (BRONCOS BABY! WOOO!) jersey with my name on it!!! SO COOL! Not the least bit frugal but I love it. I would never have bought it for myself as I wouldn't be able to justify the expense, but i totally adore it. Especially because dh is not a bronco fan. He supports another team, who's name will not be entered into my blog! :) Physco much?

Friday fun

A few days ago I broke down and bought cheap laminate furniture. *sigh* We have several pieces of laminate that I would like to replace, not add onto. But we had pressing storage needs and I have been unable to find something wood I liked. We bought a small cabinet and a shoe storage box to go on top. The one with cubbies for the shoes. Both pieces were on sale for $24 at target. I've been unpacking our last few boxes (we recently bought our first house) and organizing my craft stuff in the new cabinet. Its working very well the little cubbies keep small things from falling all over the place and the bottom cabinet holds bigger items nicely. It even fit in a good spot upstairs so I'm really rather pleased with my new white laminate. *sigh* Hubby mentioned the paint sprayer with a wicked gleam in his eyes. I countered with the much neater paint rollers. We'll see!

Why would I purchase more laminate? Because the faster I get our spare downstairs bedroom cleaned out the faster it becomes a nursery! I'm watching for deals on freecycle and craigslist so far we've been given a walker, play thing, and infant seat that goes in a bath tub. I also watch for deals on baby clothes in the thrift store and in retail stores. My highest price for an outfit is $2.50. Baby day is still a long ways off (longer if i don't get the room set up) I'm looking around for baby stuff now because the more time you have to search for deals the greater the chance of finding a good deal. or better yet free! Unfortunately we need to get some work done on our home before they will approve the home study (foster parent regulations are very detailed) hopefully it wont be too long till its taken care of. I sometimes wonder if our focus on paying down debt wouldn't be better shifted to adoption/foster care. We recently paid off a credit card with a lump $2000 payment.$2000 would have paid for the work on the house. But I suppose paying off the debt will make a huge improvement on our finances which will benefit a baby in the end. We have about $800 in credit card debt left, one car payment and a mortgage. Not to bad. Except for our recent mortgage we're pretty debtphobic, we made that mistake once!

New blog

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

This blog is wonderful! The author lives in a different region then I do so most of the deals she mentions, i dont have stores to go with. But I still really enjoy reading about them. Occasionally the deals she lists are for stores I have as well. Like Rite Aid my weekly stop. But I'm really enjoying her blog.

The drill

This summer my husband bought a corded drill. I think from a yard sale. A few weeks later he found a cordless drill at the thrift store for $15. He was thrilled, and purchased it. Two drills should be good right? Yes. If your rabbit doesn't eat through the cord for the cordless drill. And if the second drill isn't left outside in the rain two would be peachy. All the sudden we needed a new drill. Our first move was to price new ones online. Why? For two reasons. Thrift stores and pawn shops don't have an online inventory. Second we needed a baseline to know if the used drill was a good buy or not. Sometimes used stuff is not much cheaper then new. In that case we usually buy new. FYI sometimes renting tools isn't a good deal either. It would have cost us $55 a day to rent a pressure washer. We spent $90 on a new one. Used it for two days on the house, and have found several other uses for it. We did watch for one all summer in the used market but had no luck. Which brings me to our next move. We posted a wanted ad in www.craigslist.org that brought us several replies(best to do this as soon as possible so you get more replies) but no good deals. Our craigslist ad had brought us prices of $20-$45. In fact the man with the $20 drill bought is for $25 and wanted to resell it at a $5 loss? That's outrageous for a used tool! In the online retail ads We found the best drill deal right now for a new drill was $100 for a drill, saw, and other tool stuff in a set. More then we wanted to spend. Next we hit thrift stores, we came up empty. A trip to the local pawn shop reveled cordless (hubby wanted cordless, corded drills are cheaper) went from $20-$200! However hubby found an add on craigslist for a cordless drill for $7. It was a half an hour each way to pick it up. We figured even with gas it would save us $7 off the cheapest pawnshop drill. If you were pressed for time, low on gas, or don't enjoy driving then the cheap pawnshop drill might have been the right choice for you. Everyone is different. The lady we purchased the drill from also sold us a big garage light for $7 so our trip was defiantly worthwhile.

There was another option. We looked up a new power cord for our drill. It was $12 and took several days to ship. Not an option. That would have bought the drill to $27 for a bottom level drill. I would rather wait and get a good drill for a good price.

The drill we bought is not very powerful but suits our current needs just fine. We weren't able to wait for a better drill at a good price, so we went with the cheapest we could find while we look for a better one. If you have time to wait in a used purchase you can generally find a better price. We didn't. Even so we looked for a pressure washer all summer, and finally bought a brand new one in the fall.

Frugal play

Animals are not frugal. Properly cared for they require good food, shots, flea meds,surgery and toys. I have never added up our animal cost as we don't want to know. They provide us with joy and that's good enough. There are a few ways to keep costs down. I'm going to start with toys.

A few minutes ago my 2 dogs were joyfully sliding across our floor chasing after a toy. What was the toy? A Kong ball? A tennis ball? A stuffed animal? Nope. An empty, rinsed plastic milk jug. Their very favorite indoor toy. That's right theres nothing my dogs like to play with indoors better then a milk jug. Big dog grabs it by the handle and flips it into the air while he prances around, teasing little dog. If it should fall it glides easily across the hard floor. Outdoors they love, LOVE sticks. When we take them out to play and they will no longer chase their soccer ball, volley ball, or tennis balls they will run for a stick! lol my pampered pooches love the simple things. That's not to say that they don't like stuffed things that squeak, they do. But they could care less about it being a $10 petco animal or scrap fabric that i stuffed and added a squeaker. (i save squeakers from animal they tear up, and petsmart sells a package for $2)

Dh and I joke that the more expensive the item is the less likely the cats are to like it, when purchased for them. But an expensive coat carelessly left on a couch is wonderful to lay on. :) My cats favorite toy is a real fishing pole, with a rubber ball and scrap of fabric tied to the end. They love it! I don't know how much it cost to put together my dad did it for us, but i bet you could find good deals on fishing poles at garage sales. The black demon loves twist ties. The orange menace loves hair ties but that isn't frugal as every few months I have to replace the ones he hid! The cats love feathers on sticks usually $3-$5 at a petstore. Unfortunately so do the dogs, and they shred rather then play. I'm planning on taking the left over plastic stick and attaching feathers to it with floral tape. We'll see how that goes. I have feathers left from another project that i will try it out with but i would like some bigger ones if its successful. Like i mentioned earlier we are building a massive (over 5ft) cat scratcher and i will try to post photos of it when completed. We have some carpet but i don't think it will be enough even though i plan on wrapping part of the posts with sisal rope. If i need more fabric i will look at a remnant store down the street from us.

Rabbits are big chewers. Our bun has chewed through and on countless cords even though we try very hard to rabbit proof his room. He's sneaky! He enjoys chewing baskets till they are nothing but twigs. Just make sure its not a coated basket. I pick them up from the thrift store spray with vinegar and leave in the sun to sanitize. He chews cardboard boxes. Oatmeal tubes make great chewable tunnels. Black and white newspaper in a big box is fun to shred and dig in. Pine cones are good to chew as well. Some rabbits like toys, mine isn't a fan. but i know several people who buy baby rattles at the dollar store for the rabbit to toss.

My best recommendation is to know whats safe and what isn't and let the animals experiment under supervision. Last night my husband gave a hunk of leftover wood to the dogs. They chewed it into little chunks in no time! We took it away because small chunks can be swallowed and cause problems. (something you need to watch with any chew) I used to let the cats play with string in till they started eat ting it. Now i pick up every piece I find. But if we didn't experiment we wouldn't know how much fun a used milk jug is!

Rebates

So far this week I only picked up the freebies. I haven't had time to cut and sort my coupons. But I try and get the freebies as soon as possible because they go fast. On Sunday (The day the ads come out) they were already out of Aquafresh toothpaste, and almost out of crest. I got the last tube :) I check my stockpile, we now have 5 reserve tooth brushes and 3 extra tubes of toothpaste. Which means I will only pick up those items if free, or money making. If we should acquire too many then the items are easily donated. I wonder if anyone takes un-opened aspirin? I find antacids on rebate almost ever week, which is a blessing. I have a prescription but sometimes forget to take it (or misplace the bottle!) and my darling husband uses them as well.

I bought my first batch of ebay coupons. Well, I should say i paid someone to clip me a batch of coupons :) as it is illegal to buy or sell coupons. I'm waiting for them in the mail. Two of the batches were for dog bones. I have a lab that is a bigger chewer, and a corgi who loves to chew just not as fast. It would be wonderful to find a sale on the items, if not I'll head to a store that carries the item cheapest.I keep meaning to try homemade dog biscuits but haven't been able to. I would love to make one similar to a dog's kong treat as they enjoy them. Today is rainy with a nasty storm predicted so dh and i were not able to finish painting, maybe tomorrow!

EEEEE!

We broke down and bought the $40 paint sprayer we decided against. OH MY GOODNESS! We were stupid! Should have bought that in the first place. We got more of the house painted in 3 hours then 6 days!!! If you need to paint your house and dont have tons of help, buy a paint sprayer!!! It DOES make a huge mess, which i dont like but given the huge time savings i'm willing to look the other way.

Dh and i bought supplies to make a cat stand. So far we've spend $20. We have some carpet, and free wood. I think we'll pick up 2 more 2x4s for another $3. Most decent cat stands cost 100-200 dollars. Plus its something we enjoy. A year ago we took an old cheap set of shelves (no back) and carpeted them, then wrapped the sides in Sisile rope. The cats LOVED them! It was 3 shelves of scratching, lounging bliss. It was fun, and it used up a piece of furniture we were planning on throwing out. I was bummed when it fell apart on my husband during the move. AFTER i lugged them up a 2 flights of stairs! :)

You know your a cat person

When you cover up a cold, blanket loving calico with your goosedown blanket.

Okay so frugal isn't always fun.

Its far more frugal to paint your house yourself. Even then we needed so many supplies (ladder, pressure washer, brushes, rollers, extender poles) its still cost us $350. More if you add in meals out. However its just me and my husband painting our two story 1400 sq ft house. And its mostly him. We started 6 days ago and its not anywhere near being done. And i hate it. I truly hate painting the little bits the roller cant get. So last night we bought a $40 paint sprayer. I hope it makes this go much, much faster. Because this time, frugal is NOT fun!

Frugal movie watching

The drive in! If there is one in your area its a great option to check out. I've been to some that are nicer then others. Our local one had the female bathroom's septic system stop working, which they failed to inform movie goers. It was not pleasant. However we keep going because its so much fun. Two movies for the price of one, and you can bring your own snacks. Bought on sale of course. Far tastier then the over cooked stuff at concession and you don't have to wait in line. Its fun and it saves money.

More rebates

Yesterday dh and i did our monthly rebates from walgreens. Walgreens is a little different from Rite Aid's rebates. Some of Rite Aid's rebates have to be purchased during a particular week in order to qualify. Meaning i shop rite aid weekly, but generally monthly for walgreens. Currently Walgreens doesn't have online rebates so they take longer then Rite Aids, and require one to be diligent about sending them in. In order to send them in you need the receipt and rebate booklet. I try and add everything up just as soon as i get home and get the rebate in the envelope all ready to go. Last night we purchased $95 worth of stuff for $81 dollars using coupons and sales. BUT after the $57 rebate we will have spent $25! $25 dollars for what? 3 garnier conditioners, 1 pantene shampoo, 2 garnier hair colors (for the hubby!! :) 2 garnier facial cleansers, tooth brush, 2 glade refills, 1 rimmil foundation, Celadrin Dietary Supplement, and an eight pack of Zantac. Being frugal is so much fun!

From rite aid we picked up 24 top romans for .08 each(1.92 total), 3 single box puffs with lotion for .88 minus 2 .40 coupons ($1.84 total) 2 soup at hands for $1.25 each minus a $1 coupon ($1.50 total) 2 campbells soup bowls for $1.25 each minus $1 coupon ($1.5 total) ajak dish liquid for .88 minus a .20 coupon (.68 total) and viactive calcium pills for $5.99 minus a $3 coupon (2.99 total). Total before sales $31.21 Total before coupons $16.43 after coupons $10.43 after 2.99 viactive rebate $8.26

Between Walgreens and Rite Aid we bought $126.21 worth of stuff for $33.26!!! Fun!

Coupons the frugal debate

It seems there is a big debate in frugal circles about coupon use. Food coupons tend to be for convenience/ junk food that is low in nutrition. There is seldom coupons for staples. Personally I'm a big fan of coupons. I use coupons mainly for personal care items, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, etc. Using coupons these items can be found for free or very very cheap. Especially if combined with rebates from drug stores. Drug stores offer items for free without using coupons every month. My rebates have ranged from a total of $5 for a month to $45 for a month. My family is well stocked in deodorant, body wash, shave cream, razors, tooth brushes and tooth paste. Today we picked up imodium ad ex chews free after rebate normally $5.99, mylanta free after rebate normally $4.99, colgate free after rebate normally $2.49.

I use coupons frequently for animal food. Occasionally they have free coupons for food, today we got a free can of mighty dog. Last week we got a can of wet cat food. Today i also bought beggin strips for $2.69 and got a bag of carvers treats normally $2.79 for free.

I do use food coupons to stock my pantry for an emergency. Ready made meals might not be my idea of good home cooking but in a pinch, it would work. My husband could even feed himself something besides top ramen! We also use coupons for treats we wouldn't normally buy. We like fruit gushers, but we don't buy them on a regular basis. However when they are on sale for $1 a box, and i have a coupon for $1 off two we'll indulge. Today we picked up 2 mint musketers bars for .70 using a buy one get on free coupon. Ice breakers 2 for $1.19 with a buy one get one free coupon, and russel stover private reserve chocolate 2 for $2.50 with a buy one get one free coupon. The candy would make great stocking stuffers!

Coupon savings $7.77
Rebate savings $13.47

Being frugal is fun!

Orange menace strikes again

The orange menace is our one year old boy cat. We have raised him since he was a month old (someone ran over his mom) and as such he acts just like our baby. He jumps into our arms with full trust, he knows we wont let him fall. He's also very mischievous, he gets into everything! Today Dh and i were talking in the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth. The orange menace jumped onto the bathroom counter to rub against me a little bit, something he does regularly. A second later i look over at him and he's sticking a paw in our bathroom drawer. A second after that he runs out of the bathroom clutching his prize in his mouth. Whats his treasure? A long make-up brush. My dear husband chases him out of the bathroom, through the living room, kitchen, over the baby gate up the stairs, till the orange menace is cornered. Dh snatches the brush from him, only to have the menace scream at him and swipe at dh's hand! He's angry the prize was removed! So angry he follows dh all the way back to the bathroom yelling at him. What a character!