Napping Can Be Dangerous

Especially at our house on a Saturday.

It's no surprise to those who know us that our house pretty much shuts down from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 (more like 4:00) p.m. every day. The kids nap, I nap, the dog naps....but Robert. He disappears on the weekends during most naps. And can return with a truckload of surprises.

Sometimes the surprises scare me. I never know what he's going to bring home. Last weekend, it was almost a go-cart. YIKES.

This weekend, it actually wasn't too bad.



Three big boxes of books - many which we kept. Lots of childrens books and classic stories to read to them. And STICKER books. And we know how much Lillian loves stickers! A fun round futon for the kids playroom! And a desk. Don't know where that will go, we have a few desks, but if we can't find a place for it, it will go in our Goodwill pile - which is getting larger by the day.



A bike....21 speed too. It was free - not too shabby. And now that Landon can ride without training wheels, they may just have to go on some bike rides now!


And he also brought home a SINK. Talk about random. But he went by a local store which would best be described as a "Goodwill Home Depot" where you can buy used household appliances, parts, etc. for very little. It's a hit or miss place and you never know what they'll have out. But he seemed to score a GREAT deal on a nice ceramic sink! The hardware on this sink alone would have been twice what he paid!

The installation though...well, it wasn't a walk in the park.

It lead to my kitchen being torn apart at dinner time. It's a little hard to prepare dinner without running water or a sink. Let alone clean it up. (because the project didn't get completed until after midnight)


But there was some father/son under-the-sink bonding time. Always fun! :-)


But waking up to a clean, nice, new (to us) sink was AWESOME! I'm so glad Robert is so handy! Seriously, he can figure anything out!



It still needs to be caulked but I love the fact that there aren't any ridges around the edges of the sink. In our other sink, food and grime always built up in all the inner grooves and it drove me crazy! This one has a nice smooth surface around the inner edges! Sweet!!


But the best part of waking up that morning was realizing that my husband remembered to set the coffee. You see, I like my coffee ready and hot when I get up. And I am the one who sets it religiously the night before. I remember wanting to ask Robert to set it when he got the water back on but forgot. And the first thing I thought about when I woke up was how fast can I get coffee made. I had already decided (while still laying in bed) to use the microwave and some instant coffee samples we just received in the mail. So imagine my surprise as I arrive in the kitchen (already peeved about having to wait 90 seconds for my coffee) to see that the pot had already brewed!!!!! I literally made a "AH" sound out loud in my quiet kitchen. And as soon as I could, ran and thanked him while he was in his drowsy state of mind!! It just proved to me how well he knows me and how much he loves me!!! ;-)

Thanks babe! Your small effort did not go unnoticed - and definitely gave me a good start to what turned out to be an extremely emotional and dramatic day!!!

OH....if you even KNEW what we had to deal with this weekend......Stay tuned....

Club Pub

It's been a while since I've posted a Publix trip. But this week's savings really caught my eye. I almost quadrupled in savings what I spent out of pocket!



Total before sales/coupon: $106.91

Total savings in sales: $46.28

Total coupon savings: $37.25


Total savings: $83.53

Total spent out of pocket: $23.75

The glass plus was 25¢ each (can't have too much windex around here!), the bags of dog food were 99¢ each! Razors (fancy too!) were $1.50 each, Lunchables 50¢ each, rice sides that we love were 37¢ each, and the Total cereals were around $1.40 each. (Have you tried their cinnamon crunch total? it's cinnamon toast crunch for adults! but i plan on feeding it to my kids since it's much better than the kids cereals and packed with minerals and vitamens!) Yogurt packs were $1 each.


I also had a $10 winn dixie coupon that I needed to use. So it was basically some random things, but random things we use A LOT! :-) That's the point though - buy it when it goes on sale with a coupon - even if you have 10 of them in your cabinet anyways. Saves $$ in the long run!

I wish I had posted my CVS trip the other day. I walked away with 2 packs of HUGGIES diapers, chocolate, apple sauce and pure vanilla extract for $5! (and got $4.00 back) I've been able to sock away some size 1 and newborn diapers for the baby! Hoping to keep that up even after it's here - t minus ONE month! ahhh!

Desperate Times Call For Frugal Matters

Ahh, maternity clothes. It's very hard to fork over $$ for clothes you only wear for a few months. But then again, you HAVE to...or you have nothing to wear. At first, my goal for this summer was to go without buying any maternity jeans. Well, that's pretty tough. Sometimes, jeans and a t-shirt is just the way to go!

I've already had my one "splurge" for this pregnancy. White maternity jeans. And I plan on wearing those suckers OUT! They are so comfy too! And go with everything! :-)

Everything except WHITE t-shirts.

So I racked my brain on how to get some jeans without breakin' the bank!

MAKE MY OWN! Voila!

Step #1:

Find nice non-maternity jeans as cheap as you possibly can! I found some at The Gap. They were marked down to $13.97 (from $64.50) and were an EXTRA 40% off!!

That makes them $8.32 people!! Pretty good!

Wash and dry them before you sew them!!


Step #2:

Gather your supplies! You need scissors, pins, and a belly band. I had one from Lillian's pregnancy that I NEVER wore. Oh well...now it's put to good use. I think I got this one at Motherhood a couple years ago for $15. You can use any stretchy fabric though.


Step #3:

Cut off the top of the jeans dipping down just a bit in the front. Also, cut out the zipper (just the actual metal teeth part) and sew it up!



Step #4:

Pin belly band and jeans right sides together. Be sure to stretch the belly band as you pin it around the jeans. It'll be all bunched up, but you stretch it as you sew as well and it goes on smooth. Sew with a small, tight stitch so that it will hold for all the times you pull them up and down! ;-)



Step#5:

Take the pins out and wear your comfy new jeans!!!

First let me say I can't believe I put that pic of my belly on my blog. I had ABSOLUTELY NO intentions of ever posting belly pics. (sorry, I know you're all so disappointed) But there was really no other way to show the final product! :-)

And cost...I'm out $8.32. I dare you to tell me where I can get new, trendy maternity jeans for that cheap!

And second....Y'all, this was SOOO easy! And took me less than 30 minutes! (minus washing/drying time) from start to finish!!! You hardly need sewing skills to get this right! I got the idea from my white maternity jeans. Maternity jeans have changed so much over the years, and they basically put one of those belly bands at the top now. So it can go over or under your belly. I was looking close at them and just thought, " I know I can do that! "

In fact, I may do all my jeans like this...and just keep on wearing them post-baby. I heart stretchy waist-band clothing!!!


Updated Mid-Morning:

I just did another pair of my jeans. I cut off the top of one of my Citizens of Humanity jeans! (I know..call me crazy! I still have others to "get back into post baby"). And this time I used a tight, lycra, nude-colored tank top...but cut off the top straps part. And it worked like a charm! The trick is getting jeans tight enough through the hips so that they will stay up well!! :-)

Club Pub Quickie

Just a quick trip to Publix this week. Some weeks, I only get what are staples in our house. Or things that we used EVERYDAY! (juice, dish soap, toilet paper, etc.)

Plus I rolled in some things for our Mother's Day dinner that we're cooking my mom! :-) Can't wait!

And I picked up a small garden/veggie salad for lunch! YUM!


Total before sales/coupons: $43.93

Coupon savings: $15.50

Sales savings: $12.79

Total Savings: $28.88

Total spent out of pocket: $15.05


The juices were 82¢ each. The dish soap was less than free - they "paid" me 25¢ to buy it! And the tortillas were $1 and Kashi cereal was $1.50 - for Kashi that's great!


Anyways, just haven't felt too bloggy this week! Hopefully this weekend I'll pick back up my camera and some fun things will happen!

Have a GREAT weekend

Side Of The Road

Sometimes I just don't get people....and their "trash". Driving down the road the other day I noticed a car seat on a trash pile. We stopped to look at it. It was bagged up and appeared to be in great condition. We threw it in the car and decided to check it out later to see if was really trash (like broken, etc) or not.

We get home and low and behold it is a Britax Roundabout in excellent condition. I mean, it looks hardly used!! Clearly whatever child ever rode in this car seat NEVER ate in it (poor thing). The straps are in excellent condition as well as the cover. And the MANUAL was even neatly in it's little envelope behind the headrest. And the other straps behind it were perfectly rolled up. I started to wonder if it had ever been used.

Well, it's about to get some nice wear. I took off the covers and washed them. And it's all ready to go. Probably to Lillian. But it's always nice to have an extra car seat sitting around. I later found out that this is like a $200 car seat!! WOW!! And these people were just chunking it.

Sometimes I just don't get it. At least donate it. But we gladly took it off their "trash" pile for them! :-) I ain't scared to stop and pull something off the side of the road! Finders Keepers!

Club Pub (personal record)

Still trying to do all my couponing! Easter threw me off...there were no coupons in the paper on that Sunday and the sale dates were all different. But I'm back on track!!

I learned a new couponing tip. Really, I can't believe it didn't cross my mind before. So we all know Publix takes competitor's coupons. They'll stack one manufacturer, one Publix, and one competitor coupon PER ITEM! AND, drum roll please.....PER PURCHASE!!

So Publix sent out some $5 coupons a few weeks ago. I called everyone I knew that wouldn't be using them and told them not to throw them away! Then I had some other competitor coupons (rite aid, cvs, and piggly wiggly - depending on which store's policy will take them) to use on top of the Publix $5 coupons! That's $10 off just with those!!!!!

But this trip was my best!



Total before coupons/sales: $100.73

Sales: $38.25

Coupons: $44.44

Total Savings: $82.69

Total out of pocket: $18.04


Let me give you a little run down. :-)

The razors (and i don't need razors - we're stocked up good) were $3.14 each. And I had a $4.00 man. coupon and a $2 Target coupon. They paid me $2.86 (per razor package) to buy each of those razors! Which turns around and ends up being $2.86 (per package) off your total! They don't actually hand you cash. So that was a great buy!

The sour cream was negative $0.01. The 100 calorie packs were $0.25 each, dressings were $0.84 each, juice $1.00 each, the capri suns were FREE (with man. and target coupon).

The cereals were buy 2 get 1 free and I had a coupon for $1.00/3 and free gallon of milk if you bought 3 cereals Publix coupon. So $7.00 bought 3 cereals (the HUGE boxes) and a gallon of milk! Not too shabby!

You get the idea!

It was a great trip. I threw in bread and cheese because I needed some! So if I stuck to my usual of only buying what I have coupons for, it would have been under $10!

Every penny is counting these day! We're sure stretching them far in the grocery/household area!!!