New Blog!

Guess what!  I started a new family blog!  I'll still post here occasionally if I EVER ink up another stamp, but for now since most of my blogging has been family or sewing related, I figured I needed a place for that, too.  Check it out at http://www.lifeofthecrazybakers.blogspot.com/  Until next time.......

Publix and Bi Lo 8/26/11

I did better on coupons today!  Here's the breakdown:

Publix:

Tropicana orange juice
2 boxes Ritz crackers
4 boxes Nature Valley granola bars
2 boxes Kraft mac & cheese
4 bottles 50 count Advil

total before sales and coupons:  $52.73
out of pocket: $12.79

Bi Lo:

4 Velveeta Skillet dinners
1 Lawry's marinade
1 case DeerPark water3 boxes toaster pastries
2 X-14 automatic toilet bowl cleaners
3 boxes freezer/storage bags
1 1lb bag shredded cheese
1 sour cream
1 gallon milk
2 1/2 gallons Pet ice cream
9.82 lbs of Boston Butt roast
2 whole fryer chickens (10.81 lbs)
2 london broil roasts
5 packs Eckrich smoked sausage
2 packs Carolina Pride hotdogs
4 10 oz packs Carolina Pride lunchmeat
2 bags Armour meatballs
2 bunches broccoli
1 3lb bag yellow onions
2.5 lbs bananas
3.5 lbs Gala apples
1.4 lbs peaches

total before sales and coupons:  $194.00
out of pocket:  $96.57

That makes a combined savings of 66%.  Not too shabby!

Shopping Trip 7-28-11

Today is payday, and that means my envelope for grocery money got refilled!  Isn't that exciting?!  So I headed out to the stores and here's the breakdown. 

Here's what I got at Publix:   4 packs Gogurt, 4 boxes Post cereal, 5 boxes Kellogs cereal, 2 boxes Poptarts, 2 bottles Coffee Mate creamer, 1 Aussie conditioner, 4 cans Green Giant corn, 12 cans Green Giant green beans.                  Publix: actual cost $80.41 out of pocket $31.03

Here's what I got at Bi Lo:   2 bags Wise Cheese Doodles, 3 boxes Nabisco Fruit Crisps, 1 bottle Sun laundry detergent, 1 book, 5 lb. ground beef, 3.7 lb. pork roast, 6 packs boneless skinless chicken breast,  2 packs Bar-S hotdogs, 2 packs Hillshire Farms link sausage, 1 pack Smithfiels bacon, 1 pack Carolina Pride lunchmeat, 1 bag carrots, 2.52 lb. bananas, 2.52 lb grapes.      Bi Lo: actual cost $138.14 out of pocket $75.03

Here's what I got at CVS:  1 8ct pack pens, 1 small bottle Crest mouthwash, 1 50ct box Kotex pantiliners, 1 Oral-B toothbrush, 1 bottle Renu contact solution.         CVS: actual cost $24.56 out of pocket $6.30

This makes my overall trip a savings of 53.7%. I would love to get to the 60% mark, but haven't figured out how to do that yet. Anyone have any tips to do better?  I have $12.34 left for the week, which will be spent on milk, I'm sure.  Have you done any couponing lately?

CVS and Piggly Wiggly Shopping Trip

Our family is trying to make a budget and stick to it.  The goal is to be debt free as soon as possible.  We've never really tried to live on a budget before, but it's the only way possible to pay off our debt and stay that way.  We're using Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.  We've decided to budget $125 a week for shopping money,and if possible knock that number down as much as possible.  This includes groceries, toiletries, medicines, basically everything except clothing.  I've been couponing for almost a year now and do pretty good. 

Here's what I got at CVS today:  (5) bags of M&M's, 9.9 ounce
                                                   (3) boxes Chocolate Cheerios, 11.2 ounce
                                                   (3) boxes Honey Nut Cheerios, 12.2 ounce
                                                   (1) box Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal bars, 6 count
                                                   
Coupons used:  (5) $1 off M&M's
                         (3) $1 off 2 General Mills Cereal
                         (1) $.50 off General Mills Cereal bars
                         $10 Extra Care Bucks from last week

So I got $49.86 worth for $14, plus a free $10 gas card for spending $30 on certain items.  Not too shabby!

At Piggly Wiggly I got (2) 5 lb bags of Dixie Crystal Sugar and a bag of Fritos.  I didn't use any coupons, but redeemed 4.50 Greenbax to get the sugar free.  So I paid $2 for $10.47 worth of stuff.

All total, I paid $16 for $70.15 worth of stuff, which means 77% savings!  I love it when that happens!

A Trip to the Zoo

Last Friday I met with some friends from Beaufort at the zoo here in Columbia. The weather here has been incredibily hot here lately, but it was overcast the cooler that day, and it ended up being the perfect weather.  The Flamingoes are the first animals you see when you enter, and I always love to stop and take a picture. They say the flamingoes get their pink color from eating shrimp.

 We ate our lunch at the picnic area along the river.  We climbed these huge rocks and had a nice rest.  The kids loved hopping from rock to rock.  I enjoyed watching them have a blast. 

This is me with my sister-in-law Cathy.

And these are our tired little feet taking a break!

 Don't the bears look like they're kissing?

Amanda fed the giraffe at the look-out.  She loved it!

 We finished the day at the botanical garden.  The flowers were beautiful!

They had this chair in the garden.  How could you walk by and not sit in it?

In the Trenches!

Literally, in the trenches!  This is what I did yesterday morning.

Me and my two boys spent the morning digging up the water lines in our yard.  When the water company read our meter the other day, they left a note on the door that said we had excessive water usage and should check for a leak.  The house has an irrigation system that we had been using since we moved in.  Our first bill said we used 17,000 gallons.  We thought the bill was kind of high, so we turned off the sprinkler system and I just watered my flowers by hand and we didn't worry about the grass.  So when they came back and said we used 36,000 gallons, we knew there was a problem.

 Since we knew there was no leak in the house, we figured it had to be outside, but couldn't figure out why there are no wet, soggy spots in the yard?  But there must be a leak somewhere, so we began to dig.....and dig.... and dig.  It was so hot, sweat was literally dripping off the end of my nose and my clothes were soaking wet. Not very ladylike, I know.

 So after all that digging, we found nothing.  Not a drop of water leaking from the pipes.  So this morning what did I do?  I went outside and put all that dirt back in the trenches.  Turns out there was a small leak in one of the junction boxes for the irrigation system in the flower bed, but there must be another problem.  So we'll have to keep looking for it.  I kept hoping to find water gushing out while we were digging.  Then we could fix it and be done.  Oh well, I burned some extra calories, right?

 Now we have to wait for the grass to grow back in this area and it will be good as new.

 Since I showed you all that dirt, it's only fair that I show off the flowers I planted this spring.  This is around my mailbox post.  When we moved in I dug out the grass, put in the border and planted these flowers.  They were just little bitty things then, but they have tripled or more in size and I love them!

 I have the same flowers in an old beat up wheelbarrel in the front yard.  I don't know what the neighbors think about it, but I love my wheelbarrel.

 And finally, my potted plant I got on clearance at Piggly Wiggly for just $2.99!  They were also giving away mini flags because it was the 4th of July weekend, so I stuck it in my new plant.  The stand looks like a bike.  Can you tell?  My mom-in-law got that for my birthday several years ago and I love it!

So, those of you who have city water, what is your average usage?  I called my sister who also has 3 kids and does lots of laundry.  She said hers is between 6,000 - 8,000 gallons a month.  I wonder if we have a bad meter?

Jean Skirt Pillow

What do you do when this happens to your most comfortable jean skirt?

I actually wore this skirt with a rip up the split a few times.  "Ma Ma, do you know there's a hole in your skirt?"

"Yes, I do, but I like this skirt."  Well, as you can see, that hole traveled and I really couldn't get away with that anymore without indecent exposure!

I'm redoing my daughter's room on a shoestring budget, and I figured I could make a cute pillow out of this skirt.  I bought it a few years ago at the Goodwill Store for probably 2 bucks, wore it to death, and now it has been repurposed for my Baby Girl's room.

Remember the pillow that I promised no one was going to use in my previous post?  I cut it open, fluffed up the filling, and used in to stuff my new pillow.  The flowers were picked up at Wal-Mart for about $5.

Then I cut off the bottom of the skirt just above the top of the rip and ironed on the flowers.  Then you turn the skirt inside out and sew up the bottom.  Flip it back right side out, sew up one side of the top, stuff, and sew up the other side.  It was at this point I realized that one of those sparkly belts from my last post would coordinate well with the color scheme going on in the room, and those belt loops needed a belt.  I may swith it out with some wide ribbon later, but for now I'm calling it done!

When her room is completely done you'll get to see the whole thing.  I'm still working on projects and collecting items as I find them.  I'm just glad I get to do a "girlie" room.  Her last one was cowboys!

Thanks for stopping by! 

I'm linking up to Met Monday and Frugal Friday!

Thrifty Finds

I decided to hit some thrift stores yesterday.  I just felt like shopping, and thrift store shopping is 1. Something I can afford, and 2.  Fun, because you never know what you might find! 

I'm also beginning to get the itch to create or change something, so I get rid of all the kids and headed out to see what I could find!  I think I did pretty good.  I spent $30 and ended up with 28 items.  Not too shabby!

Here's everything all laid out.  As you can see, it covers my entire table!

 Here is the breakdown.  For Amanda I got the cute little hat.  Anyone that knows us knows how much Amanda loves hats!

 I scored this beauty of a dress for $1.  Can't beat that!

 She also got 5 shirts.  The one on bottom says Baby Girl.  We always call her Baby Girl, so I couldn't pass it up!

 And every little girl needs some sparkly belts!

I found these adorable flats in just the right size for guess who?  ME!

 I didn't really have any long sleeve shirts for winter, but now I have 4!  I also needed a white casual t-shirt, mine were looking kind of yellowish.  That blue and gray striped number is a lightweight hoodie.  Can't wait to wear it!

 Also in my pile is a pair of khaki capris.  Who doesn't need more khaki?

 For the men/boys in my life I picked up a dress shirt, a t-shirt, khaki shorts, a pair of jeans and a nice tie for church.  Yay!

 These are for projects I'll be working on.  See that pillow?  No one will be using it, I promise.  That would be kind of gross.  It will have another life, and I'll show you when I get it done.

 I thought his litle mail holder was adorable.  I love the swirls.  It will get a facelift also before it gets placed in it's new home.

 This is a flat sheet (full size, I think).  I'm thinking this will turn into a jumper for Amanda, or maybe a wreath for the summer.  Maybe both!  We'll see.

 And last, these baskets to help organize all the stuff in my bathroom. 

What do you think of my shopping spree?  4 stores, 30 dollars and 28 items.  I'd say it was a success!

I'm linking up to The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday.

Is anybody still reading this?

Hello!  I am here, and I am still alive.  I don't even want to look to see how long since my last post.  There have been some major changes in our family life in the past year, and more coming in the near future.  As most of you already know, my husband has been unemployed for a very long time.  We filled out applications, resumes, searched Craigslist, the classifieds, but nothing ever panned out.  That has finally changed!  He got a job in Columbia, SC as a service writer at a truck and trailer repair company.  This has meant he stays in Columbia all week long and comes home on the weekends.  This has been going on for almost 2 months now.  That will soon change though!  We are moving there to be with him.  I'm so ready for our family to be together again.  Sometimes I feel lost without him here.  For so long he was here all the time, to go to gone all the time.  Moving day is in 1 week exactly, and I'm so ready for this to be over.  The house is just about all packed up, except for the stuff we use daily.  It's been quite a challenge to keep up with school and house work while going through and packing all our belongings, but I have been able to get rid of alot of stuff!  I just can't wait to be settled again, with a normal job and normal, routine life!

On another note, I'm thinking about changing the name of this blog to make it more family oriented.  Of course if I ever pick up anything crafty again, I'll be sure to share it, but for now there's no craftiness happening around here and probably won't for a while.  So are there any suggestions for a new name?  I'd like something catchy, but I don't know what.  Please leave a comment if you are out there reading this, and if you think of a good name for my blog let me know what it is.  Thanks a million!