A THAT Family Moment

Kristin over at We Are That Family is celebrating her 2 year blogoversary and has asked us all to share in the fun and share a THAT Family moment. There are fabulous giveaways to be had..so join in!

Around here, I have many, many stories I could tell..but there is one in particular that always stands out.

Our very first trip to the St. Louis Zoo in 2004.

An old friend and I decided to pack up our kids for some good ol' frugal fun. Our children knew each other as babies, and rarely got to see eachother since our move. We met in my hometown and started the almost 3 hour drive to St. Louis. She had a set of almost 4 year old twins, and my two were almost 4, and 2 ½.

The St. Louis Zoo is free to get into, you just have to pay for parking if you arrive after 9am. We were trying to keep everything as frugal as we possibly could, so we ate lunch in the vehicle, packed up our wagons with snacks and drinks and made our way in.



Summer in Missouri is rather hot and humid, this day being no different. The kids were beginning to get hot and cranky, so we decided to take advantage of the Penguin exhibit. As you can imagine, it felt very good in there with temperatures around 45°. It soothed our souls. :)








After oogling at the penguins for quite some time, we decided it was time to take a break. We sat down in a nearby bench. Kait wanted to take a look at the Polar Bear, so I was holding her up to take a peek. Meanwhile, Nicholas (my oldest) decided that nature was calling. Instead of asking me to take him to the nearest bathroom, he found himself a tree, pulled his pants down to the ground and preceeded to relieve himself on the tree. If that was not enough to make me want to crawl under a rock....



The train came. And Nicholas loves trains. He waved and waved and yelled. Every.Single.Person. around could now see him.




Did I mention, that while all of this was going on, Kaitlyn (who was potty training) relieved herself all down my arm?!



Oh dear! At that very moment, I knew we were THAT family, and so did everyone else!




We made our way back to the Zoo right before school started this year. I am pleased to announce, there were no major THAT family moments this go around!


Except maybe kissing the snake!

Bloggin' Stuff

This post is a bit overdue. Cents to Get Debt Free has officially been around for a year! Whoa!!!! Where did the time go?

I was hoping to have everything made over by then, but I got to busy and it just didn't happen. I did, however, get one thing done that I've been dying to do. I moved to my own domain! You can now find me at gettingfreedom.net or centstogetdebtfree.com. (Don't worry, the blogspot address will still get you here.) I chose both since I get numerous searches for centstogetdebtfree.com--but I also feel as if my blog pertains to more than just debt freedom. I started out mostly posting my couponing deals, but quickly morphed into so much more. With that, over the course of the next few months or so I hope to unveil a new look, and a new-ish direction for my blog.

I owe, you, my readers a HUGE thank you for sticking with me and being such an encouragement on our journey. I was hesitant at first on being so open, but you all have been such an integral part of our success, I'm glad I did it! The bloggy community is amazing, and I'm so glad that y'all have kept me around. Thank you so very much!

**Note: For some reason, yesterday blogger stopped emailing me when someone comments on a post. Because of this, I've had to enable comment moderation again. Hopefully I can get this fixed soon. None of the settings have changed..so I'm thoroughly confused. Anyone know how to fix it?**Nevermind. I changed the email address for my comments to be sent to, and for some reason that fixed it. Hhmmm.

ABC News Article

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of being interviewed by ABC News regarding our way of life. The article was actually published yesterday and if you get a chance--check it out!.

Many thanks go to Toni from The Happy Housewife. Toni's blog has been a big inspiration and a constant reminder that frugality is possible. I know that if she can live on on half thier income and save the other half with 7 children--then I surely can! If you haven't checked out her blog, what are you waiting for? :)

Quick Tip: Mopping Floors

I'm not going to lie, I really do not like mopping floors.

I think moreso that I just don't have the time to give my floor a good mop every time it needs it. I like to only do it when Noah is napping, or playing quietly so that I dont' have worry about him trompling all over my clean floor. But, by the time I remember I need to mop, get the floor swept, and get the bucket drawn and am on my way--he comes in and I have to try to keep him out. Or, I just get busy and forget that I haven't mopped in weeks days and it is 8:00pm and I have no desire to mop right before bed.



But, I do love a clean floor. The sense of accomplishment when it is clean, shiny and sparkly, and often times slightly slippery is just amazing.

So, I decided to put my "mop water" in a spray bottle.

You can pick these up at Walmart for about a dollar. All I did was run super hot water, and add just a little bit of cleaner (you can use anything that you would normally use on your floor). Give it a good shake and you are ready to roll.

Spray on your floor, and mop away!

No bucket. No icky, dirty mop water. Your floor dries fast. Great for cleaning up spills quickly. Good for spot cleaning right before company comes.

When you are done, store under your sink, or with your cleaning supplies. Definitely a floor saver!

This isn't to say that the floor doesn't sometimes need a really good hands and knees kind of cleaning--because it still will, occassionally. But, this sure does help me out, a lot!

This post is linked to:

• Kitchen Tip Tuesday.
• Tackle it Tuesday
• Works for Me Wednesday

Photo Source

It's Party Time! Excellent!

It's party time! 5 Minutes for Mom is hosting their annual Ultimate Blog Party, and there are lots of great prizes at stake (any of which I would love to win!). Be sure to check in on the action, if you haven't already!

Come on in for the party, and sit down a relax for a bit.

Partying will wear a girl out! Help yourself to some Blueberry Streusel or anything else you can find around here.

I'm Phoebe and I love to talk about all things frugal, including gardening, cooking from scratch, and our quest to getting out of debt. We're learning all about the simple life and it's many pleasures, and I would love for you to join in! I also host a feature called Finding Freedom Fridays where we all gather to share different frugal ideas and help each other find freedom from debt. Be sure to come back and share your tips!

I won't keep you too long, but feel free to subscribe to my blog feed, or you can catch up with me on Twitter.

Be sure to visit all of the other parties goin' on and get in on the fun!

Cholesterol and Triglycerides

I mentioned Monday that my husband's recent doctor visit yielded not so great results on his cholesterol/triglycerides. I've always vaguely known what they are, but not really paid much attention because quite frankly I never fully understood their importance.



I've learned a lot since Friday (which is when we got the results). And, we have made a lot of changes in the last few days.

1. Our portions, although I thought were in range, are getting a makeover. I've always known the rule of "meat servings no bigger than the palm of your hand", but I guess we never tightly followed that rule.
   
   
2. Amping up our vegetable intake. We've always ate our veggies--but we're trying to double up on our servings (cooked with no salt seasoning in place of our usual salt).
   
   
3. Upping our fish. I've wanted to do this for a while now, but just haven't because fish is more expensive than some other meats. Also, up until about 8 years ago--I hated fish, so I'm still learning to cook, eat and like fish. In an ideal diet, we would have fish 3 times a week. I'm currently shooting for once.
   
   
4. No more sausage (or bacon) and eggs breakfasts for my husband. He's been eating about a cup of oatmeal with cinnamon and half of an apple for breakfast in the morning. Sometimes he will eat it with a fried egg white. I've also bought Cheerios for those "off" days. **And let me add here that there is a big difference between generic and name brand Cheerios. I will admit that this go around I bought the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart--but I won't again. I've always went with generic on most things because the taste is usually just about the same--but I won't anymore without first checking the nutritional label. And I urge you to do the same. Although you maybe be saving a buck or two now, your health is worth SO much more than that! **
   
   
5. Changing DH's lunch. For the most part he always took a sandwich (on whole wheat bread) with cheese, chips (if we had them), and some form of snack cracker. If we had fruit he would take that, too. And--who knows what else. We've omitted the cheese off of his sandwiches, added a salad, and an orange, and taken out the rest.
   
   
6. I made some granola (packed with wheat germ and flax seed) for those snacky moments.
7. Also snacking more on vegetables/fruit. I love a fresh red pepper!
   
   
8. I make a whole wheat/all purpose flour bread--but I would love to find a tried and true 100% whole wheat bread, or an Oat Bran Bread recipe.
   
   
9. Trying to get atleast 30 minutes of moderate exercise. Willie is doing really good with this and enjoying it!
   
   
10. I just recently removed all margarine from our diet. Wanting to kind of stay that way and remain on butter, I bought SmartBalance butter, which has Omega-3 but we use it in moderation.
    
    
11. Really paying attention to fruit intake. Ideally you should have about 1½ cups fruit, with atleast ½ cup of that being a citrus. Doing really good here, getting about 3 cups of fruit a day.
    
    
12. I'm taking this opportunity to teach my kids a little bit about nutrition. I find this especially important since I know very little and look where it got us. I want my children to know how to eat and be able to pick a good food from bad all while knowing portion control. An average person can have some "unhealthy" foods as long as it is done in moderation.
    
    
13. We're enjoying our "new" diet, our added energy, and our gusto to change. We are still a young couple (not quite 30) and this is a very scary experience for us and a major wake up call.
    

Willie's numbers were very high, which puts him at a risk for so many things. We're bound and determined to get those numbers where they should be and enjoy this life that we are blessed with.

If you do not know your cholesterol scores--I urge you to get them checked. We literally had no idea, and I never would have thought about it. Thankfully, since the doctor was already running tests, they decided to run the cholesterol one as well.

This post is liked to: Thursday Thirteen.

Finally!

It's sad, but it's true. I don't think I can remember the last time I could see the top of my kitchen table. It pains me, because this is where we are suppossed to be eating supper, but it has been taken over with my seed collection.

It's bad.

This picture was even snapped after I cleaned some stuff off of it.

Notice the dirt mess, too?!

I'm a bit embarassed.

But, not anymore!

This is what she looks like right now!

Don't mind that on the bench behind the table, I have placed all my seeds while they are waiting patiently to go outside to the greenhouse. Or wherever I decide to stash them until planting time.

Funny, my husband just called and I told him you could see our table. He couldn't believe it!

That is when you know it really is bad!

While I was at it, I scrubbed down the wall, and the floors. Everything is so sparkly and ready for our St. Patrick's Day Feast.

Glad I got that tackled! Now, if only I could find the top of my desk. ;)

Be sure to check out what others are tackling this week over at Tackle it Tuesday.

Menu Plan Week of 3/15-3/21

It's officially the middle of the month of March. This month we have been busily getting ready for our garden...and boy has it been fun! How I long for fresh veggies from the garden. We need them now more than ever.



Over the next few weeks, our menu will be going through an overhaul. My husband had a cholesterol test, which yeilded not so great results. One of my goals for this year was to learn more about nutrition, apparently now is my chance. If you have any tips for lowering cholesterol/triglycerides, any recipes or websites to share, I beg you to please pass them my way.



I've been reading and researching since getting his results on Friday, but my menu was already planned and shopped for. I would like to think that they are relatively healthy, but what do I know? Right now, I am going to leave them as they were planned, but I will leave room to change as I see fit.



Dinners:

• Sunday: Shepard's Pie without the mashed potatoes, extra veggies. ($2.80) Side Salad. (.50) ($3.20)(6 servings=.53/ea)
• Monday: Sweet and Sour Chicken. ($2.75) Fried Rice. (.25)($3)(8 servings=.28/serving)
• Tuesday: Corned Beef Brisket. Cabbage. Boiled Potatoes. Green Milkshakes for kidlets. ($4.50?)(5 servings=.90/ea)
• Wednesday: Chunky White Bean Tomato Soup. HM French Bread. ($2-ish)
• Thursday: Crockpot Rotisserie Style Chicken. ($1.65 for 5 of the 20 servings) Rice. (.25) Steamed Veggies. ($1)($2.90)(5 servings=.58/ea)
• Friday: We will be gone.
• Saturday: Chicken Pot Pie (using some of the leftover chicken). ($1.85) Salad. (.50)($2.35)(8 servings=.23/ea)

TOTAL COST: $17.95 AVERAGE PRICE PER SERVING=.45/ea

This week Menu Plan Monday is being hosted over at $5 Dinners, be sure to check out what everyone else is having this week.

My Baby Girl is 7?!

My baby girl has turned 7, and I cannot believe it! Where has the time gone?



Her birthday was actually in the middle of February, but with Valentine's Day and other craziness, we weren't able to have Kaitlyn's "friend" party until last weekend. It was well worth the wait.



We went with a Hannah Montana/pamper theme. For the goodie bags we put nailpolish, nail file, hair curlers, makeup, and some other randomness. We painted fingernails/toenails, put on tons of makeup and slept in rollers so they could all have curly hair in the morning.



But, the highlight of it all?



Hearing my baby girl read her birthday cards with very little assistance.



Definitely a Finer Thing in life.

Be sure to check out more Finer Things over at Finer Things Friday.

Spring, are you here?

Living in Southern Missouri, you never know what to expect when it comes to the weather. This year is a perfect example of that. One day it may be close to 80 degrees outside, and a couple days later we could get this:

One of the best snow storms we have had in recent memory. Total of about 6 inches, that was mostly gone by noon on Sunday. We are to be in the mid 60's on Wednesday!

Thursday I was on a mission to get my home clean before my house was bombarded with 6 girls aged 7 and under. When I started my list, I was on a mad dash to finish it. But, then I got sidetracked and ended up doing an all out spring cleaning fest! My home has had an overhaul, and I think I can almost hear it singing.


It has been awhile since I have done more than the regular, run of the mill cleaning. My home was in dire need of it, and I'm so glad that I did it. Although, now I have to make up for it and finish my To Do list from last week!



I washed all my walls in the living room getting them ready to be primed and painted and wiped down all the trim (ick, ick, ick!). My bedroom was becoming the black pit of doom--all the toys we were wanting to get rid of, and all the picture frames that I have taken off the wall (wanting to switch out pictures and regroup my frames) were piled up in there. Definitely not the sanctuary that it should be. I did a head to toe clean of this room as well. Boy what a difference it makes.



When I was done in those 2 rooms, I moved into my kitchen and wiped off the top of my refigerator, and the china hutch. I'm usually pretty good at staying on top of them, but I think it had been awhile since I done them last!



As I was cleaning all through out the house, I was also ridding it of the excessive amounts of clutter and paper junk. I now have a big donation pile, which really makes me smile!



Today, since I do not have my regular cleaning to do, I will finish up part of my to do list from last weeks list, continue to plant some seeds, and just relish in the awesomeness that is a clean, sparkly, singing home!

Have you started your Spring Cleaning yet?

Be sure to check out Moms The Word new Monday meme: Making your Home Sing Monday.

This post is also linking to 5 Minutes for Mom.

Tackling My To Do List

Coming into this week, I knew that it was going to be busy and hectic. I was ready to embrace it, and get cracking.



But, Monday came, and I hit just about every snag I possibly could. And I wasn't happy about it.



Thankfully, though, I didn't let it get me down.



I wrote out my To-Do List for the week, and there were 13 things that HAD to be done before Friday evening (we are finally have my daughter's friend birthday party).



Here they are:

• Finish painting the ceiling in living room and hallway. Oh what a difference this made!
• Clean up and finish reorganizing the livng room. Move out clutter!
• Clean up Laundry Room. (When I find something that the kids have outgrown, we just put it on the dryer until we have enough to donate. Also, I have a really bad problem with folding the laundry, but just stacking it up on the rocking chair that is in there instead of putting them away.) Basically, lots of clothing clutter!
• Take donations to town.
• Put away the snowflake/snowmen towels. (I'm such a procrastinator!)
• Tidy up the front porch area. Bring out some spring decorations.
• Finances. Do check up for February, and pay the bills.
• Do taxes. (Told you I was a procrastinator!)
• Make ahead weekend breakfasts.
• Make snacks. (Granola bars, muffins, cookies)
• Make meal plan for March and grocery list.
• Plant the rest of my seeds (or as many as I can).
• Plan ahead some blog posts.

I guess some of those didn't actually have to be done by Friday, but it would make things easier. I haven't gotten all of them done just yet, but I will come back and update as I get them done. I'm hoping that today will be super productive and I can knock most of them out.

I'm hoping that with me posting this for everyone to see, that I will be more accountable and eager to attack. We'll see--because this coffee is taking forever to kick in!

Stop by Happy to Be at Home for more Thursday Thirteen.

What do you need to get done this week? How are you doing on your "To-Do's?"

Taking it For Granted

I love my job. I really, really do. There are days that I just feel overwhelmed by all my housewife-ly mommy duties--but honestly I wouldn't change it for a second.



I say this, because I have been taking it for granted, and I didn't realize it. I've come accustomed to always having my kiddos around.



We live away from all of our family, and I have major issues with trusting people to watch my kiddos. Needless to say, our breaks are few and far between. And, well, we are okay with that.



My sister in law surprised me this week, and came down for the big kids' Basketball game and offered to take our 3 year old back home with her--until Saturday!



I hestitated, but we agreed.



It has been ever so quiet today, but yet very productive while my big kids were off to school. I was home, by myself for most of the day.



A quiet day, and a much needed break, are definitely a finer thing in life. But you know what? So is mommyhood--and boy have I missed it today.



I miss my baby! I'll be sure to catch up on those snuggles when you come home! ;)

To see other Finer Things in Life, be sure to check out Finer Things Friday over at Amy's.

Help Me!!

I need you to help me!

I was interviewed by BlogInterviewer.com and now my blog is up for "Top Blog" on their site. If I get enough votes, I can win $50.

Rock On!

So, mosey on over there, and cast a vote for me..please. You can vote once every 24 hours, so try to remember to go back daily.

How Far Would You Go?

I've been dying to get a greenhouse since we started planning a relatively large garden for this year and we wanted to do it from seeds rather than plants. I know that seeds are a little more work than just buying the plants, but they are so much cheaper than the plants.



We began the journey of researching ways to build greenhouses, and also looking into the price of a new one. I really wanted the kind that had the hard plastic sides, versus the plastic tarp thing. After figuring out how much it would cost, though, we decided that for our first year, we should just build one of the plastic tarp ones and later on we could upgrade if we thought we needed to.



But, the other day while attending to my new addiction know as Craigslist (which came about after this incident), I found a used greenhouse. It was the exact model that we were originally looking at that had the hard plastic panels and it was $120 cheaper. SCORE! The only problem, it was in the city, just over an hour away.



After much talk and deliberation, we decided to get it. The final price of the used one was still cheaper than what we would be able to build one for. Yesterday, while looking at Craigslist again (I told you it was an addiction) I found a listing from a woman who had a greenhouse business, and was selling out. She was selling all of her benches, pots, live plants, etc. I was dancing in my seat. It was on our way to the city, so we decided to just stop in there first.



We got to the greenhouse business first, and I purchased 10 inserts (the little compartments to start your seeds in) and 10 trays to put the inserts in, as well as 4 benches. Not all of the benches will fit in the greenhouse, but they are very high quality benches that I could even sit outside in the garden.



It was starting to sprinkle, so we hurried out of there and went on into the city to get the greenhouse. We got to where the greenhouse was at about 7:30 pm. The woman we were buying it from owned 2 houses right next to each other, and she showed us where the greenhouse was, we paid her, and she left to go back to the other house. So my 8 year old, my husband and I started disassmbling the greenhouse to load on the trailer to haul home. It's a small one, so it didn't take all too long to be done, but by the time we were almost finished it was actually raining, instead of sprinkling. Thankfully it was still about 60 degrees outside.



We started loading it all on the trailer and realized that the windows were down in the truck, so Willie rolls them up, and makes sure that Noah, who is sleeping in the back, is going to be okay. We finish loading everything up and we decided to go back and make sure that we didn't leave anything behind. I was standing between the truck and the trailer, and I go to step over the tongue of the trailer and I hit my leg, somehow my knee and end up falling face first into the gravel and a mud puddle.



Nicholas was standing right there beside me and he was freaking out. Willie comes over to help me up, but I just wanted to lay there and just soak it in, and try not to cry. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, and let me tell you that this was painful. I'm almost 6 feet tall, so I had quite the way to fall. But, I'll almost bet that it was a pretty comical sight to see!



I make it up, bruised and battered, and we go back to make sure we didn't forget anything. All is well and we load up in the truck, soaking wet. Go to start the truck.........Dead as a doornail.



Willie accidentally left the key on when he rolled up the windows!! We couldn't believe it.



We had to call the woman, who was at the house down the road and come jump us. After about 45 minutes we were finally on our way home.



Thankfully, all 3 kids were wonderul throughout the whole ordeal. We finally made it home last night at about 11:30pm. I decided to let the kids sleep in and just take them to school this morning.



Plus, it is my baby girl's birthday today. Hard to believe that she is 7!

So my question is, how far would you go to save a couple hundred dollars? My guess is with everything we bought we probably saved about $270. Do you think that it was worth it?

My elbow, knee and leg are dying to know.

150th Post!

What do ya know...this is my 150th post! I think I started all this in June, so roughly 7 months ago...boy does it fly.



I had originally planned to do a Frugal Friday post with an awesome, frugal, Christmas present idea good for boys/girls and basically any age. But, it just isn't quite ready yet. Hopefully later this afternoon!



In the meantime I wanted to ask a little bit of you, my readers.



I would really like to know what it is that you want to see more of, less of, no more of (lets hope that there is nothing that falls into that category!). I have a lot of different ideas for next year floating about in my mind, but before I put them into action I wanted your advice. So, leave me a comment, or you can email me (my email addy is on the sidebar).



Also, a couple different things to note on the sidebar. There is the Following option that Blogger rolled out here a while back. I love this thing! It puts your beautiful picture over in the sidebar and when I make a new post you see it on your dashboard. I like to see who reads and get to know everyone a little better. If you do not have a Blogger account, you can sign up for feeds. Just click the "Subscribe in a Reader" under my email address. Also, as I mentioned the other day...I joined Twitter as well. It's a little different...but I'm getting used to it, and I like it. It is kinda of like mini-blogging. So, come join me there as well....I'm kinda lonely! :) Follow me and I'll follow you back. We'll be twiends.



I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions. Thanks everyone for all your encouraging words and friendship. I appreciate it greatly!

If you haven't noticed it yet...

I added something else to my sidebar. I guess I'm going to hop onto the Twitter bandwagon, too!

I have yet to figure it all out, but I'm thinkin' I might just like it.

So, if you get a chance, come follow me on Twitter.

Crazy Insane Wags Trip

Yesterday when I was grocery shopping I decided to go ahead and fly into Walgreen's to cash in on the Venus Razor deal. I've really been laying low on deal-ing...I've not had much spare time to work deals. When I made my way over to where the razors are, they were out! I was so mad...I just knew I would score one (or 5!) since I didn't wait till the end of the week like I usually do.



I found a worker, but couldn't locate the BA. So, she went over to the beauty counter and paged the BA. Little did we both know, but she was stocking shelves right next to us. So, we giggled about it a bit, and she went to get down off of the step stool to come help us. Well, somehow or another her foot got trapped in between the 2 steps and she fell face first onto the floor. It was absolutely terrifying! I left my buggy (and my 3 yo..oops!) and went running over to her. She managed to get up, but was very shaken.



The other employee told her to go to the back and she tried to get me all squared away. The system was saying that there were 24 razors in stock. She went into the back to search for them, but came back empty handed. I guess that the stock room was so full that she could hardly get to anything. They were to look for them that evening and then call me when they found them.



No one called me this morning and I had to run the big kids to the library this afternoon, so I stopped in and checked. Still empty. I found my favorite manager and told him the deal. He paged the same worker from yesterday and told her exactly where they were. She went back to go get them....and came back empty handed!! Gah! Apparently their count was off! What?! How in the world can you be off by 24?



I told her that I wouldn't be back any this week since I was going out of town for Thanksgiving, so she wrote me a rain check, minus the RR! Yippee!!



While we were trying to get things straightened out I asked her about the BA that fell. I guess that she ended up shattering her knee cap pretty badly, and she goes in for surgery in the morning...pins and all!!! I feel so bad! All this for FREE razors, that I haven't even got yet!

I'm stepping out of my box.....

And I'm FINALLY going to sew something!



My mom and dad bought me a sewing machine for Christmas '02. I asked for one because I really wanted to make a quilt. The only thing I had ever even sewn before this point in time, were curtains, and a small blanket for Nicholas back when I was pregnant with him (that was 2000). We bought all the patterns and such to make his entire bedroom bedding set things...but I was put on a very restrictive bed rest, and eventually the hospital 2 months before I had him...so it never got finished.



Anyway...my machine has barely been used. It hasn't even seen the light of day for over a year...maybe 2. Honestly, I cannot even remember the last thing I used it for. That is, before Halloween.



In true procrastinator fashion..I waited until the week of Halloween to make my kids' costumes. This year actually involved sewing. Gah! But, it revived my creative mind.



Since I've buckled down the budget, I've all but eliminated our normal Christmas budget. I knew that this meant I would have to be creative, which is fine with me. I like to pretend I'm crafty! :)



So, I'm a sewing!



I'm making pajamas for my kids, and I hope to make many more things before Christmas gets here. (I've started late, huh? Oops!)



I've never in my life read a pattern. I had NO idea what I was doing...but I think that I may have figured it out.



If anyone has any advice...I'm all ears! I'm in dire need. Posts will probably be a little sparatic as well...because I am on a mission! I'll be in and out for atleast the next week.

Wish me luck!

Goodness Goodness

How much can one person fit into a day?

We've been busy as I'll get out today. It's been fun, but a little more stressful than I like!

The big kids didn't have school today due to Parent Teacher Confrences...so I thought we should do something fun. I should have just left it at that...but I hadn't done my bargain shopping for the week, and I was in dire need of my fix! :)

So, I finalize my deal (I decided to limit it to Walgreens ONLY..instead of my typical 4 store grocery shopping)...then we headed off to the "big" town.

I go to Walgreen's and clear up something the overcharged me for last week. (I forgot to post this deal last week..oops!). So...here is the pic of the goods...with the final OOP after they fixed overcharging me.

Walgreens trip 10/17

OOP: $2.19

RR Earned : $13

97% savings (not including RR)

Once that was all cleared up, I attempted to do my bargain hunting. Mind you I had all three kids in tow, dying to go to the Pumpkin Patch. Of course, since I waited until Friday to do my deals...they were out of Pert Plus and the Air Wick Neutra Air thingy majiggys. So, I was trying to rework the deal and concentrate on three kids. They were being fairly good...but I was deep in thought, or atleast trying to be! Anyway...not as low of an OOP as I wanted, but it is still a good score. (I'm seeing a trend with my high OOP...am I trying to too much at once..or what is the deal here?!)

Here's my loot:

Walgreen's 10/24

I forgot to add in my fancy smancy Halloween bowl, and (4) 12 pks Diet Pepsi.

(4) Harvest Bags Chocolate 2/$3

Bounty PT 2/$3

(4) Diet Pepsi 4/$12

L'Oreal Revitalift $16.49

L'Oreal Face Cream FREE w/above purchase

Holiday M &M's $3.49

(3) Bailey's Choc, Kahula, Grand Mariner Choc (for my mom's birthday) .50 ea

(3) Twizzlers .99 ea

TheraFlu Warming $4.99

St. Ives Cleanser $4.99

(2) Reach Crystal TB .99 ea

(4) Wags Peroxide 2/$1

Nivea Mens BW $4.99

(2) Benefiber Strawberry Kiwi Stick Pks 7.99 ea

Coupons Used

$1 Bounty Home Mailer FP.50

$2 Theraflu from Sunday's paper FP: $2.99

$2 St. Ives IP HERE FP: $2.99

BOGO Reach TB FP: .50 ea

(2) $2 Benefiber

$5 Benefiber ESQ FP: .99ea

$5/20 purchase

various RR (i think it was $21)

OOP: $47.17

MIR: $29.14 (Revitalift, Nivea BW, and Harvest Choc, with 10% bonus on gc)

$2.99 Theraflu Manu MIR

RR Earned:$8 (Theraflu and Benefiber) $5 (St. Ives) $3 Pepsi

Total: + .96

87% savings (does include MIR savings, but not RR earned)

After all my shopping...which was quite the feat, we made our way to the Pumpkin Patch. After we went there, we decided we needed to make a special "fall-ish" dinner this evening so we stopped off at Wal-Mart. Bought some goods, and came home to start dinner. Realized when we came home, WalMart didn't give us some of our items (thankfully nothing we needed for dinner).

We enjoyed a good meal, kids are wired from all the sugar, and I sit here EXHAUSTED!!!!! But stoked because even though I had a high OOP today at Walgreens..I still came out on top! :)

A Farewell

You have always been so great to me.

Holding my creations with such warmth.

You were a great addition to our lives.

Our time together was short....but you were thought of daily.

I know at the end I didn't always say nice things to you.

I'm sorry for being so rough....

But, when you wouldn't give me my dinner...I paniced...

I really didn't mean to pull your door off....Mrs. Range.

You will be not so fondly missed.

You see, when we bought our home 4 years ago it came will all appliances including the washer and dryer. I do believe they are all older than me. But, we welcomed them all into our life, because we only had a washer and dryer. We could not afford all new, or even new to us, appliances.



Over the last 4 years they are all slowly dying. First it was the dishwasher, then the washer (we sold ours because they were old too, and these were already in place.). We went sometime and finally had to replace the refrigerator. Mrs. Range has been on her last leg for quite sometime...we were just trying to get all the use we could out of her. I literally only had 2 burners working, 1 big, 1 small. The big one, you know the one you use all the time, had to be wiggled almost every use so that it would heat up. The door took 10 people to open...but hey, it served its purpose.



Until last night!



I got busy and forgot about dinner in the oven. This happens almost every time I make something that takes longer than it does for me to do a quick clean on the kitchen. Anyway, by the time I remembered the Chicken Wontons were ready to come out. I walked over to Mrs. Range and attempted to open the door. I noticed that had I not realized I was cooking at the moment I did..the wontons would be dust. At that very moment Mrs. Range refused to open and give the wontons to me!



I paniced and jerked on Mrs. Range's door.........she didn't like that very well. Now she refuses to close all the way.



Guess it's time for her to move out.



btw..the wontons were awesome!